Technology experience café - enabling technology - driven social innovation for an ageing society

Effective technology innovation process management in the context of active healthy ageing has the potential to improve older adults’ quality of life, allowing them to maintain their independence and age in their own homes for longer. But as older adults significantly differ from the general population in technology use and its impact on their quality of life, tools are needed that (1) involve this target group into the innovation process, as well as (2) capture the diverse needs of technology for various stakeholders involved in this process. This paper presents the framework called Technology Experience Café (TEC), developed within the European project SIforAGE, answering exactly this need. Detailed information on the methodology and its implementation in five sites, in four different countries across Europe, focusing on participating stakeholders, general design of the TEC, and used evaluation tools, is provided. Preliminary results show, that (1) the target group’s perception of the TEC as a framework was thoroughly positive and TECs had a positive impact on older adults’ technology related attitudes and (2) that stakeholders’ benefits affiliated with their involvement in the TECs are manifold. Implications and limitations are discussed

The grey zone: the 'ordinary' violence of extraordinary times

The article analyses the 'ordinary' violence of revolutionary politics, particularly acts of gendered and sexual violence that tend to be neglected in the face of the 'extraordinariness' of political terror. Focusing on the extreme left Naxalbari movement of West Bengal, it points to those morally ambiguous 'grey zones' that confound the rigid distinctions between victim and victimizer in insurrectionary politics. Public and private recollections of sexual and gender-based injuries by women activists point to the complex intermeshing of different forms of violence (everyday, political, structural, symbolic) across 'safe' and 'unsafe' spaces, 'public' and 'private' worlds, and communities of trust and those of betrayal. In making sense of these memories and their largely secret or 'untellable' nature, the article places sexual violence on a continuum of multiple and interrelated forces that are both overt and symbolic, and include a society's ways of mourning some forms of violence and silencing others. The idea of a continuum explores the 'greyness' of violence as the very object of anthropological inquiry

Too old for technology? Stereotype threat and technology use by older adults

Older adults are often stereotyped as having less technological ability than younger age groups. As a result, older individuals may avoid using technology due to stereotype threat, the fear of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group. The present research examined the role of stereotype threat within the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Across two studies, experiencing stereotype threat in the technological domain was indirectly associated with lower levels of technology use among older adults. This was found for subjective (Study 1) and objective measures (Study 2) of use behaviour, and for technology use in general (Study 1) and computer use in particular (Study 2). In line with the predictions of the Technology Acceptance Model, this relationship was mediated by anxiety, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioural intention. Specifically, stereotype threat was negatively associated with perceived ease of use (Studies 1 and 2) and anxiety mediated this relationship (Study 2). These findings suggest that older adults underuse technology due to the threat of confirming ageist stereotypes targeting their age group. Stereotype threat may thus be an important barrier to technology acceptance and usage in late adulthood

The integration of the princely state of Hyderabad and the making of the postcolonial state in India, 1948-56

This article explores the impact of the police action and the anti-communist struggle in Hyderabad on the formation of the Indian state in the first years after independence. Because of its central location and diverse cultural heritage, the absorption of the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union was an important goal for Nehru's government. However, the task of bringing Hyderabad into the Union was not an easy one. As it entered Hyderabad, the government of independent India had to come to terms with the limitations of the police, military and bureaucracy, which it had inherited from the colonial state; and as it took over the governance of the state, it had to find ways to manage relations between Hindus and Muslims, even as the social order was being transformed. It also had to fight communism in the Telangana region of the state, whilst trying to ensure the loyalty of its new citizens. This article examines the ways in which India's first government confronted these complex problems. The following pages argue that these early years must be seen as a time of great dynamism, rather than as a period of stability inherited from the colonial state