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Digitalization in Industry pp 233–259Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Governing the Elderly Body: Technocare Policy and Industrial Promises of Freedom

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Abstract

This chapter offers an empirically grounded critique of a Norwegian technocare policy promising to emancipate the elderly from their dependency on the welfare state by enabling self-care through technology. Employing an adapted script approach, Tøndel and Seibt argue that such “welfare technology” is inscribed with a problematic representation of the world of care, which redistributes responsibility from the welfare state to a welfare industry and from care workers to the elderly themselves. The welfare-technology-script transforms a promise of emancipation into one of economic growth, requires care professionals to care increasingly for machines, and expects people in need of care to care more for themselves. Yet, despite the discriminatory potentials inscribed into welfare technology, care workers and the elderly often manage to repair the situation through practices of invisible work and creative misuse.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

    Gunhild Tøndel

  2. Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    David Seibt

Authors
  1. Gunhild Tøndel
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  2. David Seibt
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Correspondence to Gunhild Tøndel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bayern, Germany

    Uli Meyer

  2. Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bayern, Germany

    Simon Schaupp

  3. Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bayern, Germany

    David Seibt

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Tøndel, G., Seibt, D. (2019). Governing the Elderly Body: Technocare Policy and Industrial Promises of Freedom. In: Meyer, U., Schaupp, S., Seibt, D. (eds) Digitalization in Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28258-5_10

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