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Technical Change and the Un/Troubling of Gendered Ageing in Healthcare Work
Author(s) -
Halford Susan,
Kukarenko Natalia,
Lotherington Ann Therese,
Obstfelder Aud
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/gwao.12087
Subject(s) - performative utterance , pace , sociology , perspective (graphical) , health care , action (physics) , work (physics) , technological change , gender studies , epistemology , political science , mechanical engineering , philosophy , physics , geodesy , engineering , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science , law , geography , economics , macroeconomics
Whilst recent years have seen increasing pressure to extend the participation of older people in the labour market, it is clear that there remain significant challenges in achieving this and that these take specifically gendered forms. This paper explores if and how these might be shaped in intra‐action with the rapid pace of technological change linked to the pervasive spread of digital technologies in the workplace. We take our theoretical lead from critical gerontology, feminist accounts of inter‐sectionality and Science & Technology Studies, which together insist on an anti‐essentialist and performative account of gendered ageing that focuses on everyday practices and the conditions that shape these in particular spaces, places and times. Our empirical focus is on healthcare work, where we find that gendered ageing appears in more or less troubled relations to the increasingly technological practices of medicine and nursing. We conclude with a discussion exploring the implications of our theoretical perspective and empirical findings.