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The Community Informatics of an Aging Society: a Comparative Case Study of Senior Centers and Public Libraries

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The Community Informatics of an Aging Society: a Comparative Case Study of Senior Centers and Public Libraries THE COMMUNITY INFORMATICS OF AN AGING SOCIETY: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF SENIOR CENTERS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES BY NOAH LENSTRA DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and Information Science in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Kate Williams, Chair Professor Michael Twidale Professor Linda C. Smith Associate Professor Bo Xie, University of Texas at Austin ABSTRACT The information society is also an aging society. This means that as information technology becomes woven into the fabric of daily life, the median age of humanity continues to rise. The participation of this growing population of older adults in the information society is often seen in the popular press and even in scholarship as dependent on their ability to cope with their supposedly declining minds and declining bodies. This study reframes this phenomenon by studying older adults in the communities where they live. This dissertation asks to what extent and how does community-based information infrastructure support older adult digital literacy. Three theories shape this analysis: 1) information infrastructure as the co-creation of information systems and information users (Star & Ruhleder, 1996), 2) digital literacy as the integration of technology into our lives (Prior & Shipka, 2003), and 3) older adulthood as a socially shaped stage in the human lifecourse (Hutchison, 2014). Using the extended case method approach (Burawoy, 1998), these three theories are scrutinized in relation to the empirical reality I studied. Through this situated understanding (Suchman, 1987), this dissertation contributes to the development of these theories, which are used in multiple academic disciplines. This dissertation further contributes to the fields of community informatics and library & information science, both of which are only beginning to study aging in the information society. I study senior centers and public libraries, institutions that are ubiquitous in the United States of America, as community-based information infrastructure. This dissertation consists of a comparative case study of three public libraries and three senior centers in a particular Midwestern metropolitan area. I direct particular attention to 209 of the older adults who ii participate in technology support services at these six institutions. During a one-year period involving 267 field sessions I conducted participant observation with these older adults, as well as with staff. I also interviewed 54 of these older adults, and seven staff members. I finally reviewed documents produced in the past and in the present by and about the institutions. The overall finding from this investigation is that community-based information infrastructure is indeed supportive of older adult digital literacy. However, this support is not as robust as it could be. Particular findings include: 1) community-based information infrastructure emerges out of and evolves through individual and social struggle; 2) community-based information infrastructure is rooted in the lives of older adults; 3) ageism conditions both community-based information infrastructure and older adult digital literacy; and 4) older adults are determined and creative learners who with support integrate technology into the diverse rhythms of their lives. These lives can be best understood through a new concept articulated in this dissertation, the informatics lifecourse. This concept refers to how a person learns technology through the stages of his or her life. The informatics lifecourse is populated by countless informatics moments (Williams, 2012), instances of giving and receiving technology support. Breakdowns in the informatics lifecourse of the individual relate to breakdowns at the level of the community. This finding illustrates how individuals and communities are interdependent. By foregrounding the agency of older adults in the information infrastructure they and others rely on to learn technology across time, this dissertation challenges deficit models of aging premised on decline and disengagement. Public libraries and senior centers are overpressured, publicly funded institutions. By embracing the agency of older adults, these institutions could reconfigure themselves for an information society that is aging. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In all stages of this research I relied on the guidance and wisdom of the Community Informatics Research Laboratory, co-directed by Abdul Alkalimat and Kate Williams at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Additional thanks go to the community leaders in the InfoCityCU initiative, and in particular Christopher P. Hamb and Brian Bell, who helped organize and carry out this dissertation’s pilot study. My dissertation committee provided the support and structure necessary to hone my thoughts and data into this dissertation. Thanks especially to my chair, Kate Williams, for her tireless support of this project. Linda C. Smith, Michael Twidale and Bo Xie provided invaluable guidance for this project. Thanks to all. This dissertation also grew out of my past community informatics scholarship. Thanks to campus and community partners in the eBlack Champaign-Urbana project and at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities for making me aware of the critical social roles of community elders. Particular thanks to Carol and Joe Lewis, Patricia Lewis (no relation), Diane Nesbitt, and Carlettea Donaldson. Finally, I am eternally grateful to the public libraries, senior centers, and older adults who participated in this study. Without their enthusiasm and engagement, this dissertation would not have been possible. The future of community-based information infrastructure ultimately resides in their hands. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of tables .................................................................................................................................. vii List of figures .................................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 A. The information society is also an aging society ..................................................................... 2 B. By participating in public libraries and senior centers, older adults participate in public spheres ........................................................................................................................................ 4 C. Older adults play leadership roles in their communities ........................................................ 7 D. Summary ................................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2. Review of the literature ................................................................................................. 9 A. Information infrastructure and older adults using technology in institutions ...................... 11 B. Older adult digital literacy is a social phenomenon .............................................................. 20 C. Older adulthood is a stage in the human lifecourse ............................................................. 27 D. Community informatics, community agency, and digital divides ......................................... 34 E. The case study methodology and the extended case method .............................................. 39 F. Summary ................................................................................................................................ 44 Chapter 3. Methods ...................................................................................................................... 46 A. Research approach ................................................................................................................ 46 B. Data collection ...................................................................................................................... 50 C. Data analysis ......................................................................................................................... 55 D. Strength and limitations of study design .............................................................................. 57 E. Ethics of data collection and analysis .................................................................................... 59 F. Summary ................................................................................................................................ 60 Chapter 4. Community-based information infrastructure ............................................................ 62 A. Community-based information infrastructure emerges out of and evolves through individual and social struggle .................................................................................................... 65 B. Community-based information infrastructure extends across space and time .................. 119 C. Ageism structures community-based information infrastructure ...................................... 127 D. Summary ............................................................................................................................. 131 v Chapter 5. Older adult digital literacy ........................................................................................
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