Navigating the European landscape of ageing and ICT: policy, governance, and the role of ethics.

This chapter is concerned with a description of EU policy on ICT and ageing, with a specific interest in the role of ethical considerations in related processes. We first trace and review the development of an EU information society policy with regard to older persons, reviewing successive framings. In the next step, we address the governance dimension by identifying the EU actors and networks shaping the direction of technological change in this area, with particular attention to the role of ethics: this exercise produces an original analytical map mobilised as a navigational tool for a reflection on governing the issue at hand. For this review and the mapping exercise, the authors are guided by a research question asking how value-based decisions with regard to technological developments for the elderly are dealt within the EU policy-making process.

ISBN:978-3-8376-2957-6

Keywords:EU Information Society, Ageing, Governance, Policy actors, Ethics