Digital Families Research Network

The network is currently under review but if you are interested in the Digital Families Research Network contact us at crfr@ed.ac.uk

Seminar – Parenting for a Digital Future; preparing for the unknown. A seminar has been organised for Thursday 9 April 2019, 1pm to 3pm. Click here for further details.

Past Research Workshops 2017/2018

View other resources

The Digital Families Research Network brought together academics, practitioners and policymakers to share information about the ways in which digital technologies impacted on families and relationships. The specific aims of the Network were:

To pursue new collaborative research on issues identified through the Network
To make better use of research on issues identified by Network Members
To develop a platform for knowledge exchange in relation to new and existing research
To host events with themes that will bring people together for useful discussion
To influence national and local policy makers

Digital Families Across the Lifecourse (Knowledge Exchange project in partnership with SUII)

This project took the form of series of 3 seminars held in 2015/16. Read the summary report from the programme and view the resources below.

Background
There is increasing interest in the influence of digital technologies on everyday life. The Scottish Government’s ambition is to increase the use of broadband across all communities in Scotland. Aims to improve the digital health of our population, to promote internet safety, and use technologies to support learning are well established. The digital families programme adds to this growing body of knowledge by providing opportunities to explore the increasing presence of domestic digital technologies within family life, and to debate both the benefits and pressures these technologies bring. Organised within three groupings – childhoods, family life and older age and caring – the programme addresses a range of issues, including:

the different experiences of rural and urban families;
the role of digital communication in the lives of trans-national families;
the impact of digital technologies on cross generational relationships within families;
the contributions that digital technologies can have in maintaining and developing social networks across the lifecourse;
the effect of digital technologies on education, work/life balance, lifelong learning and wellbeing; and
the social and economic inequalities that arise from different access to, and adoption and use of, technologies across the lifecourse
the differential experiences of ‘digital natives’ vs ‘digital immigrants’

This programme considers these issues within a broader political and social context, to focus our understandings of the impact of domestic technologies on family life and to create a vision for research, policy and practice in Scotland.

Project team
Dr Sarah Morton, University of Edinburgh
Professor Natasha Mauthner, University of Aberdeen
Clare Simpson, Parenting Across Scotland
Professor Samantha Punch, University of Stirling

Relevant reading
A series of 3 briefings from an earlier seminar series by Joanna McPake, Christine Stephen, Lydia Plowman.
Briefing 1, Briefing 2, Briefing 3

Resources from Seminar 1 – ‘Children and digital technologies’
19 November 2015