Information and Communication Technology Applications and the Mediatization of Social Inclusion

Edwin Ferger

Edwin Ferger University of Cologne

Keywords: Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), challenged person, ICT applications, mediatization, nudging, social behaviour, social inclusion, social and technological change

Abstract

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) has become a topic of growing importance. On the basis of the internet as a wide spread standard interaction media, numerous applications using information and communications technology (ICT) have been developed for AAL. From a sociological perspective these developments can be considered as attempts targeting at social inclusion. How these technologies should be installed: is the highest technical level the optimum, or is an adaptation to the present level of personal abilities of understanding and behaviour to be preferred?

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