29 August- 16 September 2022
Biography
Dr Juliane Jarke works at the intersection of critical data/algorithm studies, participatory design research and STS with a focus on the public sector, education and demographic ageing. Currently, Juliane is a senior researcher at the Institute for Information Management Bremen (ifib) and the Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen, Germany. Prior to Bremen, Juliane worked as a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Technology and Organisation (CSTO) at Lancaster University. She studied informatics (BSc), philosophy (MA) and IT management and organisational change (MSc) in Germany and the UK, and holds a PhD in Organisation, Work and Technology from Lancaster University. In order to strengthen the critical perspective on AI-based systems at the University of Bremen, she became a founding member of its Data Science Centre. To strengthen participatory approaches to technology design in Germany, Juliane co-founded the special interest group Participation in the German Informatics Society. Juliane is a member of the international Socio-Gerontechnology Network, that brings together scholars from various social science and design disciplines interested in critical studies of ageing and technology.
Juliane has co-edited two special issues: Probes as Participatory Design Practice (with Susanne Maaß, 2018, i-com) and The Datafication of Education (with Andreas Breiter, 2019, Learning, Media and Technology). How we can build a more inclusive digital society through participatory technology design, has been the focus of her open access monograph: Co-creating Digital Public Services for an Ageing Society (2021, Springer). Juliane is co-editor of the open access volume New Perspectives in Critical Data Studies: The Ambivalences of Data Power (with Andreas Hepp and Leif Kramp, 2022, Palgrave). She is currently preparing the edited volume Algorithmic Regimes: Politics, Interactions and Methods which will be published open access by Amsterdam University Press in 2023.
Summary of research project
Dr Jarke and Dr Manchester are building a collaborative academic partnership in the emerging transdisciplinary field of Socio-gerontechnology. The field brings together scholars working in age studies, science and technology studies (STS), and technology design. At the heart of the field are two key drivers of change that underlie societal change in the 21st century - demographic ageing and the proliferation of technologies in our daily lives as we age.
Dr Jarke first visited the University of Bristol on the Bristol 'Next Generation' Visiting Researcher Programme earlier in 2022, she is visiting Bristol for the second time on the Bristol Benjamin Meaker Follow-on Fund in order to deliver further activity, please see the objectives listed below under planned activity.
The field of ageing and technology design has been critiqued for failing to understand the complex social and material lives of older people and for the resulting production of technologies that do not live up to their expectations and needs. Socio-gerontechnology aims to bring the social and material dimensions of ageing into discussions about the design, development and use of digital technologies for ageing societies. The two scholars involved in this academic partnership lead an important element of this field – feminist and participatory approaches to the design of digital technologies. Their partnership builds on the premise that techno-futures do not simply happen but are made through expectations, imaginaries, visions and hypes that shape discourses about the future, define what is thinkable and desirable, and determine policies, legislation and funding opportunities. These expectations, imaginaries and visions also play an important role in the design and development of technical innovations and how they are embedded in aspects of our social, political, cultural, economic and everyday lives.
Their collaborative project at the University of Bristol aims 1) to further explore and experiment with feminist and participatory design methods for future making, e.g. through workshops with practitioners and academics; 2) to promote interdisciplinary conversations around ageing techno-futures, care and technology design as we age in the context of related projects at the University of Bristol, 3) to co-write a book proposal and a book chapter and 4) to co-write a doctoral training network bid.
Planned activity includes:
Objective 1: To further explore and experiment with feminist and participatory design methods for future making
1st of September: “Imagining technological and social futures of age just cities”
The workshop is aimed at charities, community and voluntary sector organisations, developers, artists, policy makers and older and younger people. Through engaging in the workshop, participants will explore imaginative future making and consider the potential role of technology in dystopian and utopian city futures.
8th of September: “Imagining alternative futures for care and connectivity in datafied societies”
This workshop is an attempt to begin to develop these imaginaries with academics from across disciplines. The workshop explores issues around data justice, data privacy and social connectivity in a digital age. The workshop draws on the science fiction novel “Infinite Detail” by Tim Maughan which is set in Stokes Croft, Bristol. It describes a community-led alternative, “a digital no-man’s land cut off from the constant surveillance, big data and corporate hegemony that have overrun the rest of the world” as well as the world outside this community. Prior to the workshop, participants will be asked to read an excerpt of the book in which a fictional
journalist describes the lives of those living in this community and those (negatively) affected by it.
In the workshop, participants will develop stories to explore the experiences of older adults in each of those worlds. Guiding questions are for example: How is care enacted in these scenarios? What (social) connections are meaningful/made meaningful? Who is further disadvantaged in these scenarios and why? What can be helpful for us today to think about future age-just communities?
13th of September: “Imagining and designing future digital technologies for ageing well”
The workshop is aimed at charities, community and voluntary sector organisations, developers, artists, policy makers and older and younger people. Through engaging in the workshop, participants will explore imaginative future making and consider the potential role of technology in dystopian and utopian city futures.
Objective 2: To promote interdisciplinary conversations around ageing techno-futures, care and technology design as we age in the context of Dr. Manchester’s UKRI funded projects and Ageing Futures research group in Bristol (Centre for Sociodigital Futures/ Connecting through Culture as we age/ Ageing Futures)
In this reading group, we will engage with science fiction imaginaries that explore themes related to ageing and technology. We will read excerpts of three novels that cover intergenerational connection, active ageing and health monitoring as well as age, gender and society. Come along if you are interested in exploring sociodigital futures making in and through science fiction.
