Hegemonic digitalisation in policy on older people: The Finnish case and wider social implications

Abstract

This article brings together societal debates on digitalisation and analysis of governmental policy on older people, through the theoretical frame of hegemonic digitalisation, and the empirical case of Finnish policy. With changing demographics in many countries, old age has gained high-profile focus in governmental policy in recent years, which has in turn become increasingly constructed in relation to digitalisation, often via an interventionist logic that positions new technologies as solutions to problems of ageing. In this analysis, material-discursive power relations are highlighted, with policy understood as material-discursive in its formation, form and effects. Specifically, the article critically examines: the conceptualisation of hegemonic digitalisation, often assumed, even across political differences, as an efficient solution to declining resources within neoliberal governance, with reference to policy on/and older people; how digitalisation and older people are constructed in governmental policy documents in Finland; and the applicability of hegemonic digitalisation to Finnish policy on older people. The article concludes with discussion of the implications that follow for everyday life, policy, social analysis and social theory. Regarding theoretical implications, with hegemonic digitalisation, the hegemony of digitalisation is emphasised, as in national policy contexts, rather than whole-society or global hegemony seen as digital. Additionally, tensions persist between foregrounding hegemonic digitalisation, and the co-constitution of older people and digitalisation policy. Specificities of ageing and older age impinge on and present challenges for both analysis of digitalisation and social theory. Theorising materiality-discursivity is a fertile perspective for studies on age, policy and digitalisation, including how future-orientation figures in policy and research.