6–10 Jun 2022
Tübingen
Europe/Berlin timezone

How does Public Health policy discursively construct old age, physical activity and digital technologies for health?

8 Jun 2022, 13:50
20m

Speakers

Fiona Dowling Marte Knutsson

Description

Aging populations in the Developed World are met with increasing expectations to assume responsibility for staving off the potential deficits of an aging body (Urban 2017). Integral to the neoliberal project of maintaining good health in a postmodern ‘risk society’ are the presumed benefits of regular physical activity for elderly citizens (Katz 2000). Public health authorities and individual subjects alike are looking to the vast array of digital devices, such as smart watches and apps, to assist them in monitoring their physical activity levels and tracking a range of health parameters, reflecting a broader trend to integrate technology in healthcare (Rich & Miah 2017). Whilst there’s an increasing literature on the habits of self-tracking, and not least, the interface between users’ self-identities and digital technologies (Lupton 2020), there’s been little research to date on the aging population (Katz & Marshall 2018).

In this paper we’ll share insights from an ongoing project that asks: ‘what discourses are informing aging adults who engage in self-monitoring practices and how do they navigate the discourses of the body, aging, technology, physical activity and health?’ In particular, the presentation will critically examine a sample of Norwegian public health and physical activity policy documents to interrogate how aging bodies and digital technologies are constructed therein, acknowledging Foucault’s (1972) claim that discourses are not merely lingual signs but practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak. Accordingly, we’ll reflect upon how the values and ideas evident in the policies can do things to people.

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