ITHA’s ambition is to model, in a nuanced and empirically based manner, the effects of digital technology on social ties among older people — seen here as a major determinant of health — in order to identify, on the one hand, the uses and conditions that are truly beneficial to health and, on the other, the risky configurations that call for adjustments to public policy, healthcare organisation and regional development. The project takes a stance that goes ‘beyond the pros and cons of digital technology’, seeking robust, inclusive and sustainable digital trajectories that are compatible with planetary limits and focused on real human needs.

The project is organised around three main areas of research:

• Health through social ties & social justice: for whom, under what conditions and in what contexts do digital practices strengthen (or weaken) the social relationships of older people? The focus is on mechanisms that differ according to social divides (cultural/digital capital, economic resources, socialisation in practices, etc.).
• Health through social ties & fair organisation of care: what is the ‘right place’ for digital technology in care pathways (formal and informal), while avoiding a normative approach to ‘digital exclusion’? The aim is to identify sustainable mechanisms that take into account social inequalities in health and support communities in their way of ‘building ties’.
• Health through social ties & spatial justice: how does digital technology expand (or restrict) the territory of social ties? How do physical and digital spaces intertwine in the production of solidarity… or vulnerabilities? What territorial levers (infrastructure, services, skills) can be used to promote responsible and inclusive digital technology that supports healthy ageing?

ITHA is a transdisciplinary and participatory project that provides tools for public decision-making and action in the field to ensure that digital technology connects rather than weakens, and that healthy ageing is based on vibrant, fair and territorially inclusive social ties.