Calling Family: Digital Technologies and the Making of Transnational Care Collectives

Digital technologies shape how people care for each other and, through that, who they are, especially for older adults living far apart. Tanja Ahlin's ethnographic fieldwork among families of migrating nurses from Kerala, India, explores how digital technologies shape elder care when adult children and their aging parents live far apart. Calling Family  uncovers the subtle workings of digital technologies on care across countries and continents when being physically together is not feasible, providing a better understanding of technological relationality that can only be expected to further intensify in the future.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 226 pages
Publication date: 11 August 2023
Publisher: Rutgers University Press

With technological innovation on the rise and increasing migration introducing vast distances between family members, a situation further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of physical distancing, especially for the most vulnerable older adults, this is a pertinent question. Through ethnographic fieldwork among families of migrating nurses from Kerala, India, Tanja Ahlin explores how digital technologies shape elder care when adult children and their aging parents live far apart. Coming from a country in which appropriate elder care is closely associated with co-residence, these families tinker with smartphones and social media to establish how care at a distance can and should be done to be considered good. Through the notion of transnational care collectives, Calling Family uncovers the subtle workings of digital technologies on care across countries and continents when being physically together is not feasible. Calling Family provides a better understanding of technological relationality that can only be expected to further intensify in the future.

With technological innovation on the rise and increasing migration introducing vast distances between family members, a situation further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of physical distancing, especially for the most vulnerable older adults, this is a pertinent question. Through ethnographic fieldwork among families of migrating nurses from Kerala, India, Tanja Ahlin explores how digital technologies shape elder care when adult children and their aging parents live far apart. Coming from a country in which appropriate elder care is closely associated with co-residence, these families tinker with smartphones and social media to establish how care at a distance can and should be done to be considered good. Through the notion of transnational care collectives, Calling Family uncovers the subtle workings of digital technologies on care across countries and continents when being physically together is not feasible. Calling Family provides a better understanding of technological relationality that can only be expected to further intensify in the future.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781978834323