Rethinking the Family/Public Divide in Older Adults’ Digital Facilitation: Warming Up Digital Public Services

As European welfare's digitisation advances, digital support strategies are increasingly relevant to assist the older segments of the population more at risk of digital and social exclusion. This chapter investigates digital support as social practices, both in familial environments and in formal public settings. Specifically, it adopts the concept of “warm expert” as an analytical lens to explore the nuances and tensions between intergenerational, family-based support practices and public institutional services of digital facilitation. It draws on two qualitative case studies conducted in Northern Italy: a longitudinal case study with older adults discussing their everyday life in digital societies and research with regional digital facilitation initiative workers. The findings from both case studies document the complex social and power relations that underlie the different social contexts in which digital support is produced. Concluding remarks also contribute to the warm expert literature and discuss the findings' policy implications.