Emerging Horizons of Care Technologies in the UK

Abstract

The delivering of care is radically changing. Intelligent drinking cups. Wearable biometrics. Home sensors. Remote online care softwares. Social robotics. We are now promised a horizon of new technologies that will clean, feed, track, lift, wipe and chat. For some, technology offers a much-needed salve – a means of addressing countries’ profound labour crisis driven by decades of disinvestment in elder care. Others are more sceptical about technological fixes. In this talk, we draw on interviews with public sector managers in social care, the executives of different technology companies, and representatives of third sector organisations. These interviews track and document new public-private partnerships between technology companies and local council authorities across the UK. Situated in a time of profound crisis in social care, we think through a series of questions and concerns from these emerging partnerships and their technologies which are radically redrawing care systems and relations.