EFORTT · Ethical Frameworks for Telecare Technologies For Older People at Home

This research is concerned with the normative implications of the introduction of remote care technologies for frail older people, for different stakeholders, and for gender divisions in particular. The project addresses an ethical and democratic deficit in this area which has arisen due to a proliferation in EU research and development of advanced care technologies yet one which has not been accompanied by sufficient consideration of their sociality and normativities. The research will deepen the understanding of ethical issues raised by the development of new technologies of remote care worn, installed or embedded in the homes of older citizens. It will develop qualitative approaches to understand the making of practice around remote care, in both preventive and responsive technological modes, using detailed ethnographic methods. It will also develop deliberative approaches to the making of remote care policy at a European level by recruiting citizens’ panels in each partner’s region. As called for by the Science in Society work programme, this will generate foresight into advanced care technologies and their embedded relations. By reconvening the citizens' panels to consider findings from the ethnographic studies at a later stage in the project, evaluative expertise and capacity will be created with civil society organisations at the local and project level. The research will develop an empirical ethics of evolving and of future care technologies to enhance the legitimacy of EU policymaking in this highly sensitive area.