Aging & Social Change: Tenth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Our study analyzes how care practices among older people unfolded in a social innovation at the intersection of public and informal care. By ethnographically exploring one specific innovation named Give&Take, we scrutinized how care among older people was co-produced in this innovation by both older people, public care staff and digital technology. We discuss the tensions that arise as the logics of care practices (Mol et al. 2010) clashes with institutionalized logics of efficiency, effectiveness and appropriateness underpinning legitimacy. This study draws on a sociomaterial practice perspective on care and empirical fieldwork conducted at one of the sites where the Give&Take innovation was developed. In conclusion, we argue that considering the specificities of care together with institutionalized logics will improve our understandings of co-production in innovations at the intersection of formal and informal care. Findings are of great importance for research and design projects following EU policy on active ageing and co-production and which try to tap into older peoples’ resources to increase quality of life while containing societal costs of an ageing population.