The Turkish Ordeal - A Historical-Processual Analysis of the Perception and Engagement of Elderly People in the Digital Transformation

Abstract

This paper employs a process-oriented methodology for evaluating how digital access to private and public services alters social and everyday practices among older people in Turkey. We also focus on the reaction of elders to the technological infrastructure developed by the Turkish state. We analyse the dynamic interplay between turning points in macro-level historical events and adaptative responses in micro-level contexts. Through historical analysis of the visual turn of culture, the aim is to reveal different ways of digital inclusion of the elderly in processes of digital transformations in Turkey, as citizens of the digital state. We provide an analysis of the process pattern of Turkish digitalisation with qualitative data gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with middle-class elders in Turkey. To identify temporal patterns in the Turkish digital transformation process, interviews are analysed in terms of their transformative aspects in society. The research data are classified into three groups with respect to their level of analysis from the micro, through the meso, to the macro level: Creation of novelty; variation, continuation, and /or transformation; adaptation. The focus of the article is on the exploration of the impact of the usage of digital communication tools by elders in terms of novelties, continuations, transformations, breaks, and adaptations observed at the micro (individual), meso (social interactions), and macro (governance) levels of social analysis.