Chapter 14: 'The role of relatives in e-governance access among elderly citizens: vignettes from the Danish Covid-19 vaccination' in 'Digitalization, Data and Welfare'

Denmark delivered Covid-19 vaccinations using e-governance, where citizens could book vaccinations online. Elderly citizens, however, are well known for having difficulty with digital solutions; instead, they rely on their relatives’ assistance. The urgency of the Danish Covid-19 vaccination functioned as a critical case study of e-governance, allowing us to examine relatives’ roles in elderly citizens’ e-governance access.

We interviewed four experts in Danish e-governance and three elderly citizens and analyzed these interviews through the lens of postphenomenology. We found that relatives’ role in e-governance access was embedded in the logic of the vaccination program. Elderly citizens’ e-governance access is shaped around their relationship and access to relatives, where elderly citizens’ homes become sites for e-governance access and relatives enable access to booking Covid-19 vaccines.

Our findings highlight challenges for Denmark to achieve human-centric e-governance, as well as new questions about how to acknowledge relatives’ role in e-governance access among elderly citizens.