Encounters Between Kindness and Digitalization: Stories of Older People in Latvia

Authors

  • Artūrs Pokšāns University of Latvia
  • Ilze Mileiko

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2025.499

Keywords:

Aging, Kindness, Unkindness, Digitalization

Abstract

The current drive towards digitalization means that more services in Latvia are becoming centralized and moving online. This changes the relationship between the state and its older citizens as the accessibility of services shifts towards those who can engage with these digital tools or live close to centers of local or state government. Using participatory action research (PAR) with older people as co-researchers, we explore how challenges arising from the digitalization of services are encountered by older adults living alone in Latvia, through the conceptual lens of kindness. The central research question is, how does kindness shape the experience of digitalization of state and municipal services among Latvian older people? Our research participants experienced digitalization as a series of (un)kind encounters at local and national levels, which made them feel excluded, vulnerable, and distressed. Challenges such as poverty, age-related health changes and, in cases of rural participants, remoteness, made it difficult for older people living alone to use digital services. We found that the kindness of others (relatives, neighbors, friends, and civil servants) was important for older people to overcome these difficulties and access government services; but this kindness alone cannot fully remedy the structural causes of these issues. State services need to incorporate kindness on a structural level through the design and implementation of services.

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Published

2025-07-08

Issue

Vol. 46 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Articles

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