Mireia Fernández-Ardévol & Andrea Rosales, researchers of the CNSC, participated in two diferent contributions. Mireia participated in the plenary panel “Aging in Data – Dilemmas of Aging in Technology: Data, Digital Inclusion and Media Practices”. She discussed the recently released edited collection titled “Digital Ageism: How it Operates and Approaches to Tackling it” (Rosales, Fernández-Ardèvol & Svensson, 2023). She explored overarching critical questions broached in the book relating to the ways in which ageism operates in hyper-digitized societies, as well as the strategies that can be employed to tackle ageism.
Finally, Justyna Stypinska presented the chapter of the book “Silicon Valley ageism – Ideologies and practices of expulsion in the technology industry”, which she wrote together with Andrea Rosales and Jakob Svensson. The chapter zooms in on the Silicon Valley, the US centre for innovative technology and home to 2000 technology companies. Inspired by the terminology of Sassen (2014), this chapter describe how the technology industry has created a system of multiple modes of expulsions of “older” workers – from work relations, workspaces, ideologies and values, as well as digital products and services. The main purpose is to propose a theoretical framework guiding future empirical and critical research into the phenomenon of ageism, as well as other systems of oppression and discrimination in the technology industry. In this chapter, they propose a concept of “Silicon Valley Ageism” which is understood as negative attitudes, beliefs and behaviours towards adults perceived as “older” and manifested in interpersonal relations and institutional practices, as well as their narratives. This type of ageism can affect people already in their 30s. The aim of the chapter is to explore (1) what narratives of “older” age are constructed in Silicon Valley, (2) how this relates to workplace practices in the Valley and (3) how this has a bearing on the products and services coming out of Silicon Valley.
The chapter was published in the open access book Digital Ageism, How it Operates and Approaches to Tackling it, edited by Andrea Rosales, Mireia Fernàndez-Ardèvol, and Jakob Svensson.
More information, including the abstracts, can be found here.