Eliciting peoples’ networks and ecologies of care in later life

While a large body of research has documented people’s experiences of care in later life, very little of this work has explored the complex networks and entanglements of care people experience in old age. This study draws inspiration from the expanding use of care concepts like ecologies and entanglements to unravel complex care relations, offering valuable insights for design considerations. Utilising Bowlby and McKie's (2018) care ecology framework, we explore how informal care practices, referred to as carescapes, intersect with local infrastructure and communal spaces, known as caringscapes. Amid the post-pandemic landscape, the CareTree probe was developed to investigate remote care experiences among vulnerable populations. Sent to 18 older adults across Scotland, the probe encouraged reflections on daily life, leading to revelations about care expectations, preparedness, and meaningful design possibilities within caringscapes.