eHealth and Ageing in Rural Areas: Transforming Everyday Life, Digital Competences and Technology

HARVEST project is nationally funded by the Finnish Academy, as part of international JPI MYBL call. JPI MYBL is supported by J-Age II. J-Age II is funded by Horizon2020, the EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation, under Grant Agreement no 643850, the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) “More Years, Better Lives – The Potential and Challenges of Demographic Change”.

HARVEST explores the changing dynamics of health and social care by empirically and theoretically examining old age users' use and non-use of eHealth services online in rural regions. It seeks to understand (a) the impact of ICTs in the everyday lives of older people; (b) the role of (rural) place; and (c) the relationship between technology and digital competences in relation to older people’s use of eHealth in three different countries: Finland, Italy, Sweden. The final goal is to provide policy-makers with relevant information to develop eHealth projects that go beyond a technocentric and deterministic approach and consider the real geographical and cultural context of use of digital technologies among elderly.

The project is coordinated by Umeå University and project partners are University of Lapland and Catholic University of Milan. In the University of Lapland, the project is implemented by Faculty of Education's Centre for Media Pedagogy and Faculty of Social Sciences. Collection of research data will involve collaboration with The Northern Finland Centre of Excellence on Social Welfare.