Careful Digital Kinship: Understanding Multispecies Digital Kinship, Choreographies of Care and Older Adults During the Pandemic in Australia

Abstract

Abstract During the pandemic many aspects of our life were recalibrated through the digital—highlighting the paradoxes of the digital for both empowerment and exploitation. In particular, the pandemic demonstrated the increasing role of the digital in shaping, and being shaped by, kinship. Kinship is a complex term that captures our relationality, intimacies and connections. Kinship is always in action, always becoming. Throughout the pandemic, some cohorts such as older adults (65 years +) were disproportionally disadvantaged due to the uneven digital literacies skills. In this article I expand upon the role of digital kinship as part of human and more-than-human choreography of (informal) care for older adults in Australia. I also reflect on the role of creative forms of knowledge transmission such as illustrations and placemaking games to curate public awareness and enact change.