Older adults living with forgetfulness encounter difficulties when engaging with changing and dynamic everyday technology (ET). The capability to use ET is important for independence in later life and is affected by the contextual and individual characteristics of older adults. Using the capability approach as a theoretical lens, this phenomenological study aims to explore the experiences of older adults living with forgetfulness, in order to identify contextual and individual factors that facilitate the use of ET in everyday life. A qualitative methodology was used to interview 16 community-dwelling older adults participating in memory and technology workshops at local community centres in Barcelona. Findings show that motivation and openness to learning played a facilitating role in our participants’ use of ET. The presence of social support in the form of “technology experts” and community centres offering learning opportunities were also enhancing factors that encourage independence when engaging with ET. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the importance of expanding intergenerational ET learning opportunities, through the creation of age-friendly spaces.
An ethnographic approach to agency manifestations in nonagenarians and centenarians in Chile This paper presents the results of an ethnographic research aimed to study agency manifestations of nonagenarians and centenarians in their process and experience of advanced aging. Agency particularities of longevity are addressed in contexts that shape the aging experience of subjects. The working hypothesis has been that by producing deep qualitative data about the lives of people living in the fourth age, a series of agency manifestations emerge that show that this capacity is not reduced/lost, but rather is transformed in various ways that are specific to this moment of the life course. The research is of descriptive-explanatory nature and is framed within a qualitative-inductive approach of
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