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The 7th Transforming Care Conference will be held in Helsinki, Finland in 2025. It will take place from Wednesday 25 June 2025 to Friday 27 June 2025 in the Main Building of the University of Helsinki in the very centre of Helsinki. 

The theme of the 2025 Transforming Care Conference is ‘Social and Human Rights in Care’. In recent decades, there has been increasing discussion about the importance of the human rights approach and the role of social rights in the contexts of disability, long-term care and childcare. Overall, social and human rights have become a key perspective in the discussion on the future of care in Europe and globally. Research is now needed to analyse the opportunities and potential problems of this development, which is why the 2025 Transforming Care Conference hopes to bring social and human rights discussions into our research debates and strengthen their role in our future research work.

The Transforming Care Conference is held every two years and is aimed at investigating how transformations of care for children, frail older people and adults with disability are playing out in policy and in practice. We encourage contributions from around the world that investigate transformations of care in policy and in practice, either as single country or as international, global trends. In addition, we welcome single policy contributions as well as contributions that go across the policy fields of early childhood education and care, care for adults with disabilities and long-term care for frail older people in the same broad perspective.

Welcome to Helsinki in June 2025!

More information on the conference website:  

We are pleased to invite you to our upcoming seminar, Aging with Digital Technologies, taking place on Friday, 13th September from 10:00 to 12:00 in Jyväskylä. The seminar will feature Dr. Nicole Dalmer from McMaster University and Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging, along with Dr. Riitta Hänninen and Doctoral Researchers Laura Pajula and Viivi Korpela from the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care, Ģ��ֱ��. 

Date: Friday, 13th September

Time: 10:00 AM (EEST)

Location: Ģ��ֱ��, room L310B

Schedule:

10:00 Opening words  

10:15 Dr. Nicole Dalmer – “Informative, dull, incomprehensible”: Mapping older Canadians’ understandings of data

11:00 Dr. Riitta Hänninen – Revisiting digital participation in later life - A conceptual analysis

11:30 Viivi Korpela & Laura Pajula – Navigating mis- and disinformation at an older age

Event page: /en/events/aging-with-digital-technologies 

Designers and decision makers tend to view care technologies as transformative to the care field although studies on the impact of the technologisation of care have raised concerns that require critical exploration. In general, the discussions on the digitalisation of health and care often revolve around the mismatch between technological opportunities and ethical threats. Drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS), the Reassembling Care for Older People (RECOPE) network takes a different approach. The network explores how the introduction of digital technologies into older persons’ daily lives always reconfigures the basis of care provision itself, the actors involved in care relations and thus what we understand by good and sufficient care.  

Through a series of workshops, RECOPE invites participants to join a network of care researchers and stakeholders. The Jyväskylä workshop will be the last in a series of three workshops, following successful workshops in Copenhagen (May 2023) and Reykjavik (September 2023). We bring together stakeholders involved in the digitalisation of care of older persons as well as leading researchers on care technologisation, with a different approach each day. The ultimate goal of the workshop series is to develop an EU funding proposal for the research project, which will address the common challenges related to the reassembling of care. 

The RECOPE workshops are two-day events. On Monday, 27 May, we will hold a stakeholder workshop with non-academic stakeholders. During this first day, RECOPE will bring together local stakeholders from the care and technology sectors to gain an understanding of the current developments and experiences. Academic participants are welcome to also join on the first day. On Tuesday, 28 May, we will hold an academic research seminar, based on this call for abstracts for oral presentations.The second day will start with a keynote speech by Prof. Britt Östlund (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm) with the following topic: While waiting for AI! What is new? What have we learnt? History of technology in care settings revisited. For the rest of the second day, we invite papers from different disciplinary backgrounds on socio-material perspectives that explore how digitalisation and technologisation affects ideals and practices of care of older persons, with a focus on care taking place in older people's homes. We aim to advance knowledge about the technologically reassembled home care practices in ongoing care crises, where ageing in place and active ageing policies increasingly rely on technologised futures.

More information on the event website: /en/news/call-for-abstracts-workshop-of-the-reassembling-care-for-older-people-recope-network 

Tervetuloa Hoivan pimeä puoli -julkistustilaisuuteen Jyväskylän kaupunginkirjastolle to 27.4. klo 17.00 alkaen. Ohjelmassa on teoksen toimittajien avauspuheenvuoro sekä paneelikeskustelu kirjan teemoista.

Hoiva ja sen järjestelyt koskettavat meistä jokaista jossain elämämme vaiheessa. Sekä yksityinen että ammatillinen hoivaaminen voidaan kokea palkitsevana ja mielekkäänä, mutta pahimmillaan hoiva saattaa olla myös velvoittavaa, raskasta ja aikaa vievää sekä ajaa tekijänsä psyykkisesti, fyysisesti ja emotionaalisesti äärirajoille. Näiden kielteisten puolien ilmaiseminen voi olla hankalaa tai lähes mahdotonta jopa ammattilaisille.

Huhtikuussa julkaistava Hoivan pimeä puoli -teos (Gaudeamus) esittelee hoivasuhteiden katveita, rajoja ja säröjä sekä palvelujärjestelmän rakenteellisia vinoumia. Millaisia kipupisteitä voi liittyä läheisen hoivaamiseen? Millaisia haasteita kohtaavat ne, jotka hoivaavat työkseen? Millaisia ratkaisuja hoivan rakenteet mahdollistavat, ja mitä ne ehkä tekevät mahdottomiksi? Teoksen ovat toimittaneet Helsingin yliopiston tutkijatohtori Tiina Sihto ja Tampereen yliopiston yliopistonlehtori Paula Vasara.

Lue lisää kirjasta:

It is a great pleasure to inform you that Professor Caleb E. (“Tuck”) Finch will visit Finland in December as guest of the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoEAgeCare) and the Gerontology Research Center (GEREC).

Prof. Finch will give a talk on “Smoggy brains and ApoE4 accelerate risks of dementia in Los Angeles but not in the Amazon” In Tampere University, Arvo building, room F115, 15 December at noon, 12 o´clock. In recent year, a major theme in Finch´s research is the role of environmental change, particularly air pollution, in aging, health and Alzheimer´s disease. This is the focus of his latest book “The Role of Global Air Pollution in Aging and Disease. Reading Smoke Signals” (2018).

You are all welcome, no registration needed.

About Professor Finch:

Caleb E. (“Tuck”) Finch is Professor and Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is one of the , perhaps “The” , most highly recognized and influential scientist in the world in the field of the biology of aging. But his research has a very broad scope. Major themes in his work are the evolution and background factors of human life expectancy as well as underlying factors of Alzheimer`s disease. He is interested in the role of social factors and social class in health and aging, and he is a pioneer in introducing social factors into biological research, and biological factors in social and demographic research (e.g. in Cells and Surveys. Eds. CE Finch, JW Vaupel and K Kinsella, 2001).

In addition to hundreds of articles in the leading scientific journals, he has authored several books, among which ”Longevity, Senescence and the Genome” (1990, ca one thousand pages) is a real magnum opus of aging research, and “The Biology of Human Longevity” ( 2007, ca 600 pages) are two continues this line.

Finch is a central figure in two exceptional studies on cultural and environmental factors of age-related diseases. An international research group has for several years examined signs of cardio-vascular diseases in thousands-year- old mummies across four continents. In another study, scientists focus on health and aging of the Tsimane people who live isolated in Amazonian rain forests in Bolivia.

In recent year, a major theme in Finch´s research is the role of environmental change, particularly air pollution, in aging, health and Alzheimer´s disease. This is the focus of his latest book “The Role of Global Air Pollution in Aging and Disease. Reading the Smoke Signals” (2018).

The overarching theme of the congress is population ageing as a global phenomenon that is already changing the world, and the impact of population ageing on care needs and care policies in the future. In addition, the congress discusses the measures and policy tools needed to ensure high-quality care for older people. Within the multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare, ) population ageing has been studied in connection to health and socioeconomic status of older people, agency and social wellbeing, care policies, disability policies, formal and informal care, care workforce, digitalization of care work and use of technology by older people, as well as ethnic diversification of older people and care workers. We study these questions from the perspective of welfare systems taking into account cultural, socio-economic, regional, national, and global perspectives.

The mid-term congress offers researchers interested in the above-mentioned topics an opportunity to present their research results in this multidisciplinary congress. Another aim of the congress is to offer researchers an opportunity to exchange ideas and strengthen existing research networks and build new ones. Third important aim of the congress is to provide an arena to develop ideas and research collaboration for the future. We invite contributions from researchers working within the CoE AgeCare and our collaborators, but welcome also contributions from research groups and researchers who are not affiliated to the CoE AgeCare.

The congress registration and call of abstracts opens in 24th January 2022. The deadline of the abstracts is 28^th February.

The organisers aim is to have on-site meeting, but due to continuing Covid-19 pandemic the participants will be given an opportunity to express their preferences for on-site/online meeting. We will follow closely the development of Covid-19 pandemic and keep you posted of any changes linked to the mid-term congress arrangements.

Organising committee: Outi Jolanki (Chair), Mari Aaltonen (Co-chair), Linda Enroth, Jutta Pulkki, Anniriikka Rantala

Congress information: CoEAgeCare2022@tuni.fi

Practical arrangements: congress@tuni.fi

Social media: CoE AgeCare on & . The official hashtag is #AgeCare2022

The Research Network on Ageing in Europe delivered its 5th Midterm Conference in January 2021. This was the first time the Midterm Conference has been delivered online, and it was a huge success. There were 150 participants from 25 countries, with 119 presentations delivered across 31 sessions. We were also delighted to host excellent keynote presentations, by Ruth Bartlett, Ricca Edmondson, Chris Gilleard, Shereen Hussein, Tine Rostgaard, and Päivi Topo.

See the ESA newsletter that discusses the conference .

Seminaarin järjestävät Helsingin yliopisto, DigiIN- ja CoE AgeCare -hankkeet sekä Suomen sosiaalioikeudellinen seura ry

Seminaari liittyy seuraaviin Helsingin yliopiston laajoihin hankkeisiin: Palvelukulttuuria uudistamalla kaikki mukaan digitaaliseen yhteiskuntaan, DigiIN ja Ikääntymisen ja hoivan tutkimuksen huippuyksikkö

Tilaisuus on maksuton. Tilaisuuden puheenjohtajana toimii professori Anne Kouvonen.

Ohjelma

Alkusanat professori Anne Kouvonen
13.00 Sote-digipalvelut nyt ja tulevaisuudessa (tutkimuspäällikkö Hannele Hyppönen, THL)
13.20 Ikääntyvien syrjäytymisvaara sote-digipalveluissa (apulaisprofessori Sakari Taipale, Jyväskylän yliopisto)
13.40 Maahanmuuttajuus  ja syrjäytymisvaara sote-digipalveluissa (tutkijatohtori Ulla Buchert, Helsingin yliopisto)
14.20 Kuulovammaiset henkilöt media- ja digipalvelujen käyttäjinä (erityisasiantuntija Sami Virtanen, Kuuloliitto)
14.40 Loppukeskustelu, vetäjänä professori Anne Kouvonen

Tervetuloa!

Helsingin yliopisto
Anne Kouvonen, sosiaalipolitiikan professori, DigiIN-hankkeen HY:n tutkimusryhmän johtaja

Date: 18th November 2019 

Time: 12:15 – 15:00 

Venue: Agora, Auditorio 2 (Mattilanniemi), Ģ��ֱ�� 

Associate Professor Annette Kamp: Temporalities of digital care 

Abstract: For many years, time-optimization has been the centrepiece of rationalization-efforts in health and social care. The resulting linear time regime (Durkheim & Swain, 2012), where time turns out to be a resource that must be used as optimally as possible has been subject to much criticism in studies of care work. The recent wave of digitalization of care work, that aims at supporting the paradigm of personalized care - often translated to rehabilitation, activation, freedom, and self-reliance - may change temporalities in quite other ways and call for new conceptualizations of temporalities in digital care. This paper aims at contributing to this conceptual development. It draws on insights from newer time sociology who specifically address the penetration of ICT in all aspects of life such as John Urry (2012), Hartmut Rosa (2013) and Thomas Hylland Eriksen (2001). The paper combines this with approaches generated within STS studies that acknowledge the mutual constitution of the social and the material (Orlikowski, 2010), thus open up for the complex negotiations of use of technology, time is being actively reorganized. The paper draw on cases from an ethnographic field study on the use of ICT in elderly care, generated as part of a larger Danish research project on welfare technologies in care work, in order to illustrate and further develop the conceptions of the temporalities of digitalized care work and discuss implications for care and care work. 

Professor Eveline Wouters: Care and technology: possibilities and obstacles. The multi-stakeholder perspective 

Abstract: As a result of demographic changes that have led to older age that is accompanied by an increase in prevalence of chronic illness, there is an urgent need for support of the current health care system,. Technology (eHealth) is seen as a welcome opportunity. In practice though, many technological innovations are not used or only used in relatively small scale pilots. In this lecture first some examples of technological applications in different domains in health care will be given: the opportunities. After that, an overview of frameworks, models and theories that explain why technology adoption in health care is relatively slow, is presented. Especially the role of different stakeholders will be explained.

Programme 

12:00-12:15 Coffee and tea 

12:15-12:45 Giovanni Ferrin; University of Udine: “Experimental research on educational robotics in Nothern Italy” 

12:45-13:15 Tuuli Turja, University of Tampere: ”Modelling care robot acceptance among Finnish care workers” 

13:15-13:45 Sakari Taipale et al., Ģ��ֱ��; “Research on digital technologies and robotics within the CoE AgeCare” 

13:45-15:00 Questions and discussion

CoE AgeCare RG3 & MigraFam Workshop, 24-25 May, 2018, University of Helsinki, Finland Venues: Unioninkatu 35, aud 116 (keynote lectures) & Snellmaninkatu 12, Room 234 (research workshops) This workshop brings together researchers from the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (RG 3, Migration, Care and Ageing) and the project Ordering the ‘Migrant Family’: Power Asymmetry Work and Citizenization in Restructuring Welfare Professional Bureaucracies (MigraFam), both funded by the Academy of Finland. The two-day workshop is organized as a combination of lectures open to the public in the mornings and closed project researcher workshops in the afternoons. Our ambition is to bring ideas from international debates to the study of the street-level welfare state. We wish to examine the concept of precarious citizenship for the critical consideration of citizenisation processes and the ways how the borders of our Nordic Welfare states mold citizenship of foreign-born people who settle here. Furthermore we are interested in the uses of ethnographic method in this research as well as in the ethical challenges street-level ethnographic research involves. The first day is dedicated to conceptual explorations of precarious citizenship and state boundary-making. The second day offers examples of ethnographic studies of precarious citizenship and the challenges involved in doing research among vulnerable populations.

The Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care organised its International Kick-Off Conference in Jyväskylä 29-31 October 2018. The event was attended by 92 leading ageing and care researchers from 21 countries from Europe, North America and Asia. The purpose of the conference was to share information on CoE AgeCare activities and ongoing research, and especially, to plan our future collaboration with research teams from different countries. The conference consisted of 18 workshops in which topics varied from care policy, changes in care needs and care services, robotics, technology and migration to agency, health and well-being of older people.

As a part of the conference, we organised an open key note session. Its three speakers were all global leaders in ageing research: Professor from Canada, Director from Italy and Professor from Sweden. All the key notes addressed from different perspectives the same question “Where is research on ageing and care today and where should it be tomorrow?”. In her keynote, Professor Martin-Matthews from University of British Columbia discussed home as a place of care. According to her, home care seems to be an arena of both conflicts and co-operation, shaped by social forces. Director of National Institute of Health and Science on Ageing (INCRA) Giovanni Lamura explored in his keynote migrant care workers and the use of technology in care work. Professor Britt Östlund from KTH Royal Institute of Technology presented a timeline of the development of technology in care work.

For many participants of the Kick-Off Conference this was the very first visit to Jyväskylä and Finland. All in all, the Kick-Off Conference was a very interactive and collective event as its organisation differed from the usual conference structure: the main focus was on collaboration workshops in which all researchers could actively participate in developing new perspectives on ageing and care. The outcomes of this event will be utilised in many ways in the work of CoE AgeCare – in particular, in our close research cooperation with our 60 international collaborators.