Tag: technology

Posted on

10 reasons to attend Global Carework Summit

Global Carework Summit

The Carework Network is organizing a three-day conference to bring together carework researchers from across disciplines and across the globe; June 9-11, 2019, Toronto, Ontario.

Top ten reasons to attend the Global Carework Summit in Toronto

  1. Be inspired and challenged by Juliana Martinez-Franzoni, a leading scholar of care in Latin America, whose innovative work draws links between policy regimes and care.
  2. Hear Pat Armstrong’s latest thinking about care work and the intersections of scholarship and communities based on her groundbreaking international collaborations.
  3. Engage with authors at one of our ‘Big Book Ideas’ sessions and bring your own book to share at our informal book exchange.
  4. Dialogue with care scholars from the UK, Australia, Costa Rica, Singapore, New Zealand, Chile, Poland and many other countries (add yours here by coming to join us!!).
  5. Attend panels that combine academic and activist knowledge and help us think about how to change the world one project at a time.
  6. Enjoy the affordability of the conference registration fee (and free lunch!) while visiting a vibrant, diverse, urban setting with endless possibilities to try unique food.
  7. Contribute to a special issue of the International Journal of Care and Caring on “The Changing Character of Carework: New Risks and Responses.”
  8. Stay an extra day or two to visit the renowned collections at the Royal Ontario Museum and cutting edge exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario, or to explore Toronto’s beautiful neighborhoods and green spaces.
  9. Learn about the pioneering work of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in making the care economy front and center in multinational policy conversations.
  10. Connect with a dynamic and passionate group of scholars, opening up pathways for ongoing networking, innovative collaborations, and fun.[pullquote]Carework Summit 2017[/pullquote]

Call for abstracts and papers

Abstracts are due December 1st, 2018 to be considered for participation in the second Global Carework Summit to be held in Toronto on June 9-11, 2019.

When submitting your abstract for the Global Summit, please indicate in your email if you would like your paper to be considered for the special issue of the International Journal of Care and Caring. We will be inviting authors to submit a full paper for consideration in the special issue based on abstracts submitted to the Global Summit.

International Journal of Care and Caring special issue: Call for Papers

The changing character of carework: New risks and responses.

The world in the early 21st century is one characterized by rapid change, increasing risk (Beck 1992) and growing inequality and insecurity for many (Milanovic 2016). This special issue will analyze both formal and informal carework in the context of the political, social, and economic changes and displacements that have produced the insecurities and risks that mark this period of late modernity.University of Toronto

We are focusing on four streams within the special issue, all related to our broader topic.

  1. The growth in precarious and low-wage work (Kalleberg 2011) as it relates to informal and formal carework
    • Growth in the low-wage and precarious work and the ability of families to provide care
    • The impact of changes in the economy and labor market on who is providing care, both formally and informally
    • Low-wage work and formal careworkers
    • The expansion of the health care / care sector in today’s economy
  2. Technology and carework
    • The impact of technology on how care is provided, both informally in the home and formally
    • Depersonalization and technology
    • Technology and job quality/job availability for careworkers
  3. Immigration and carework
    • Migration of careworkers around the globe
    • Immigrant care economies (immigrants providing elder, disability or child care to other immigrant communities)
    • Informal multigenerational care in immigrant families
  4. The changing family and carework
    • Changes in the structure of the family and the provision of care – single motherhood, dual-earner families, same-sex marriage, etc.
    • The political context of the family – policy and support (or lack thereof) for families in the provision of care

Visit for further information and registration the Summit homepage.

Posted on

15 PhD’s for ENTWINE ‘How can we bridge the ‘Care Gap’

Entwine Informal Care

entwine informal careENTWINE, The European Training Network on Informal Care

ENTWINE is a 4-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovation Training Network (ITN), funded by the European Union and started as of September 2018. The Network will train 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) for high quality PhD training.

Job description

Mostly due to increased longevity and medical advances, the needs of older/ill individuals for long-term care rise rapidly while the availability of informal caregivers decreases. Informal caregivers are those who provide unpaid care to a relative or friend with a chronic illness, disability or other long-lasting health or care need. This ‘Care Gap’ will create huge problems for the sustainability of European health care systems that rely heavily on the provision of informal care. How can we solve this problem?

The ENTWINE team aims:

  • to detail the current and future caregiving challenges and motivations for diverse groups of informal caregivers and care recipients, and society, in different countries that have different care systems.
  • to examine whether specific (psychosocial) interventions, services and technology-based interventions could be helpful to caregivers, and if so, how best to deliver these interventions, services and tools, in order to sustain willingness to care amongst caregivers and support them in experiencing optimal outcomes of their role.
  • to promote the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based interventions, services, and tools aimed to support informal caregiving.

The PhD students will be selected for a 3-year advanced multidisciplinary and intersectoral research training, preferably starting in March 2019.

Work packages

Find a description of the three work packages and the 15 PhD positions at the website.

Work Package 1: Investigating willingness to care

WP1 aims to detail the current and future caregiving challenges and motivations for diverse groups of informal caregivers and their recipients, and society, in different countries that have different care systems by means of an intensive longitudinal cohort study (ENTWINE-iCohort). This is crucial in order to establish who needs support, what kind of support, and when.

Work Package 2: Designing solutions for informal care

WP2 aims to examine whether specific interventions, services and technology-based interventions (eHealth, social robots) could empower caregivers and reduce their burden. If so, WP 2 aims to examine how to deliver which interventions, services and tools, at which time, and to whom, in order to sustain willingness to care, experience optimal outcomes of their roles, and improve quality of life amongst informal caregivers. Methods include experiments, factorial designs and persuasive profiling.

WP3: Implementing novel technology based solutions

WP3 aims to examine the issues around the implementation and dissemination of innovative interventions, services, and technology-based tools intended to support informal caregiving. The focus is on overcoming barriers following a user-centered, stakeholder-driven implementation and agile science approach to promote adoption and implementation of these innovative interventions, services and tools.

Requirements

  • You have a Master’s degree or equivalent in psychology, sociology, (health) economics, health policy, health sciences, communication sciences, health technology, computer sciences, or related fields at the time of start (1 March 2019).
  • Your educational background matches the requirements of the ESR positions you are interested in.
  • You are an Early Stage Researcher, meaning that at the time of recruitment by the host organization, you shall be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of your research career and has not been awarded a doctoral degree.
  • You must fulfil the mobility criteria defined by the European Commission: at the time of recruitment by the host organisation, you must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the start date of the project (expected March 1st, 2019).

Conditions of employment

The PhD student will be appointed at and conform the conditions of the host organisation indicated for each position. We offer:
  • A stimulating and creative learning environment and an interdisciplinary and international research training programme.
  • You will be engaged in transdisciplinary experiences with targeted secondments to practice communities and companies.
  • You will have the opportunity to acquire outstanding complementary training in transferable skills (e.g. presentation techniques, networking, publishing, and outreach) as well as leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial skills.

Applying for a job

Do you consider applying? Please go to Recruitment for more information.

You can apply until November 30th, 2018.

Posted on

3 PhD positions Delft University of Technology

Tilburg University

“Design for changing values: a theory of value change in sociotechnical systems”: energy systems, artificial intelligence and design strategies.

Delft University of Technology offers three positions for PhD students as part of the research project Design for changing values: a theory of value change in sociotechnical systems. The entire project consists of 3 PhD positions and 2 postdoc positions and will be supervised by prof.dr.ir. Ibo van de Poel. A complete description of the project can be requested. The project aims at better understanding how moral values may change as a result of technological development and how we can better deal with such changing values in the design of new technology. Each of the PhD positions focuses on one of the following more specific topics:

  • Changing values and the design of energy systems
  • Design for value change in robot systems and artificial intelligence
  • Design strategies for value change in sociotechnical systems

Each of the projects involves empirical as well philosophical investigations into the phenomenon of value change and its implications for the design of sociotechnical systems. The first two projects focus on value change in a more specific domain (energy systems and artificial intelligence). The third project focuses on developing design strategies that better allow to deal with value change.

The candidate will carry out doctoral research which will lead to a dissertation, and will also produce relevant publications. The candidate will participate in the Graduate School of TU Delft and in the PhD program of the 4TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology.

When applying please indicate in which position(s) you are interested; you can indicate more than one position.
The candidate will also be involved in the teaching activities of the department.

Requirements

  • A master degree in philosophy, engineering or a relevant socio-scientific discipline, like STS (science and technology studies)
  • A demonstrable interest in applied ethics and in technology
  • It is recommended that the candidate has had experience in carrying out empirical research and has knowledge of the relevant technological domain studied in the PhD project
  • Good analytical and reasoning skills, as demonstrated by, for example, a master thesis
  • Willingness and ability to work in an interdisciplinary team
  • Ability to present his or her ideas clearly also to people with another disciplinary background
  • Openness to criticism
  • Productive and dedicated
  • Good command of both written and spoken English

Conditions of Employment

TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, a discount for health insurance and sport memberships, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. An International Children’s Centre offers childcare and an international primary school. Dual Career Services offers support to accompanying partners. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment; an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor; and a Doctoral Education Programme aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills. Please visit www.tudelft.nl/phd for more information.

Employer

Delft University of Technology, Faculty Technology, Policy and Management

Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is a multifaceted institution offering education and carrying out research in the technical sciences at an internationally recognised level. Education, research and design are strongly oriented towards applicability.

The Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management contributes to sustainable solutions for technical challenges in society by combining the insights from engineering with the humanities and the social sciences.

Information

To apply, please e-mail a detailed letter of application before by November 12, a curriculum vitae and the names and contact information of references to vacature-TBM@tudelft.nl . When applying for this position, please refer to vacancy number ATTBM 18.022.

For information about this vacancy, you can contact Ibo van de Poel, email: i.r.vandepoel@tudelft.nl, tel: +31 15 278 4716

Posted on

Who cares? Caring with technology

home care technology

‘Who?’, put short and simple, sounds rather banal, but has turned out to be a missing question in current debates about future perspectives of care arrangements in Germany for the („more and more demented“) elderly. Who cares for whom – concretely, day to day with attention and competence since we are facing a huge care gap from the side of the care-givers: While the number of future care-receivers is doubling, the amount of potential care-givers is declining (Klie 2014; Kohlen 2010).

Over the last couple of months I have been observing a discourse in politics and academia in Germany that shows an excitement about technological advancement in home care and which is supposed to secure the elderly in their home despite certain diagnostic signs and self-perceptions of frailty. Nevertheless, as studies have revealed (see especially Alistair Niemeijer 2015, Jeannette Pols 2012) the use of technology is arranged and continuously re-arranged by somebody.

Home Care

In home care, the cyclic process of integrating technology is mostly done by nurses who keep an eye on how patients handle the self-made measurements on their body and do the interpretation. In her ethnographic studies, Jeannette Pols (2012) shows how nurses and patients re-shape care when they start using telecare devices. Actual care practices employing surveillance technology do not resemble the hopes of the industry and policy makers. Surveillance technology cannot substitute care practitioners and it is not known whether there will be new challenges including pressing ethical questions facing “good” practices as we can learn from Alistair Niemeijer’s study (2015).

Last week after my lecture on Ethics, care and gender, students handed in their essays about the topic. While reading the essays over the last days I realized that the question “who is taking care of whom in the future?” was something they have not come across before. One student put it like this: “In order to prepare the future of home care we need to consider different structural formats, that is to say, what are possible arrangements; and who is supposed and willing to do the care work” (Theresa Wied).

Women

Right now, we know: Not only the care-receivers are mostly women, but also the care-givers. In home-care as well as in the elderly homes, two out of three carers are women. Among the care-givers who do informal care – without support from professional care practitioners – are more than 70% female and less than 30% male. Professional home care is done nearly only by female nurses (90%) and the numbers are closely the same when we look at the female care givers in nursing homes (Schneekloth 2006, Kohlen 2010).

One concluding thought: to engage with current scholarly work as well as political statements by policy makers on care and technology is to enter different discussions and see how is dealt with the who- questions. “Thinking from women’s lives” (Harding 1991) in which care often occupies an important place through the life span might be a fruitful idea.

References

css.php