This presentation explores the variety of socio-material arrangements that enable older people to continue living independently. Drawing on a collection of ethnographic observations and interviews with telecare users the author (Daniel López) conducted at their homes in 2004 and 2008, he analyses in detail how the process of adopting the service makes visible and puts to the test certain arrangements that already exist, providing room for their modification and the creation of new ones. Rather than replacing existing arrangements with new solutions, I suggest maintenance infrastructures be devised to support the bounded and inalienable undertaking of caring for these arrangements which configure our autonomous, yet ageing lives.

1. Little arrangements that matter.
Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life.
Daniel López Gómez
STS-b Research Group
Estudis de Psicologia i Ciències de l’Educació
1
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

2. • 2009-2012: FP7 European Project: “Ethical Frameworks for Telecare Technologies for
older people at home” (EFORTT)
• 2010-2014: “Value Ageing“ is a 48 month Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnerships
and pathways Action with the purpose of incorporating European fundamental values into
ICT for ageing.
Projects
2
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

3. López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

4. López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

5. • How ageing with autonomy is performed in real-life
contexts when autonomy-enabling innovations are
implemented,
• In what sense technologial innovation enabled or
disabled older people to live autonomously.
Main goals
5
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

6. Data
6
Installation After 1 year More than 3
years
12 users
observed
and
interviewed
at home
2 users
observed
and
interviewed
at home
10 users
observed
and
interviewed
at home
11 users
observed at
home during
follow-up
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

7. López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

8. Rosa
(Installation)
Montse (After 1 year)
"What if I do not answer
(to the teleoperator)?”
"And if I’m not at home,
what happens?”
So if I’m not at home it
doesn’t work, uff…
“So, if I forget to take it off
once (when leaving home),
this ... what happens?"
"But if that happens, if I
can’t get from here to
there, then it is all over
anyway."
“Taking the telecare pendant on
and off constantly would be
annoying and I don’t want to
wear it when I’m out on the
street. That’s why the telecare
pendant is usually hanging in the
kitchen, where I spend most of
the time. It’s near at hand. It is
obvious that I couldn’t reach it if I
fell down, I’m aware of that…”
“I remember when they rang me
for the first time: they wanted to
know if I was wearing the
telecare pendant. As I didn’t
expect it, I couldn’t come out with
a lie. Then, they told me off and
said: you must wear it! Since
then every time they ask about
the telecare pendant, my answer
is: ‘yes, yes yes!’ But you mustn’t
snitch on me! The truth is that I
do not want to wear it.”
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

9. • Security arrangement:
o Boundaries between indoor/outdoor as safe/unsafe
spaces
o The home is define as a container of threatening
events bounded by thresholds of reachability and
audibility. Users are free of these events depending
on these thresholds.
o In case of need, users rely on fast, efficient and
tested responses.
o Anonymous people, you trust the procedure:
teleoperators shift but they follow the same
protocol.
o Care as a response to an individual need that must
be explicitly asked for.
o Care giving and receiving is a matter of choice
o Care can be split in tasks that can be delegated to
different actors (family as emotional supporters,
teleoperators look after and migrant caregivers do
the bodywork)
o Ageing identity entails more self-monitoring and
better adjustment of lifestyle to risks
Interferences between security arrangements
and community and family arrangements
9
• Community and family arrangements.
o Communal and in-between spaces are key
element to create and maintain mutual support
and solidarity among neighbours and family.
o Home is a space defined by different social
activities and attachments
o These in-between spaces can be physical
(communal courtyards) or virtual (daily phone
chats)
o In case of need, you rely on who takes care of
you
o Known people, you trust specific persons for
specific tasks
o Care is an embodied burden that is usually
gendered-defined, entails unpaid carework, and
is hard to delegate to others without making it
meaningless, “cold”, and a source of guilt.
o Ageing identity is defined by being aware of an
increasing fragility but without entirely defining
who they are or what they do.
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

10. Autonomy is caring for those fragile arrangements that hold us and
enable us to think and act in a certain way
We should place the fragility of these arrangements at the centre of the
design of any technological innovation and generate collaborative
innovation processes that could adjust more easily and more effectively
the arrangements needed to confront the challenges of aging.
Autonomy and fragility / Care and autonomy-
enabling innovations
10
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

11. Gratiane de Moustier,Aging at Home:The Story of Odile (2008) available from: http://www.gratianedemoustier.com/odile.html
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

12. Gratiane de Moustier,Aging at Home:The Story of Odile (2008) available from: http://www.gratianedemoustier.com/odile.html
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

13. Gratiane de Moustier,Aging at Home:The Story of Odile (2008) available from: http://www.gratianedemoustier.com/odile.html
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01

14. “The very notion of her independence being
tampered with leaves her with an uneasy air of
discomfort. The high priority she places on what
others may view as menial tasks often leaves Odile
under pressure and in a panic, continually searching
for her next task. Odile's continual striving to
maintain, what in her view resembles her own
meaningful and necessary independence, is a
continual drain on her fragile frame”
G. de Moustier, Aging at Home: The Story of Odile,
URL: http://www.gratianedemoustier.com/Resources/gdemoustierodilen.jpeg.
López, D. (2014). Little arrangements that matter. Rethinking autonomy-enabling
innovations for later life. Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.01