Smart Ageing in Urban China: Power, Markets and the Everyday Politics of Care

This book provides an in-depth study of community and home eldercare in modern China, examining its integration with urban community governance. Community eldercare, established through public-private partnerships, reveals a hybrid economy where state control and marketization coexist. By situating eldercare within the community, it becomes intertwined with population governance, particularly with the recent adoption of smart care technologies. As a result, community eldercare transforms into a semi-public space that combines elements of social, physical, and emotional homes for older adults. The book explores caregivers’ work, framing it as bodily, dirty, and emotional labor. In the current trend of digitalization, caregivers are not only monitored by digital technologies but are also required to interact with these technologies in addition to providing direct care. Drawing on ethnographic analysis, this book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in human geography, gerontology, and Asian studies, as well as for policymakers and practitioners in the rapidly expanding field of eldercare. It will also resonate with a broader audience interested in the global implications of population aging and the integration of technology in care systems.

Yi Yu is an Associate Professor in the School of Geographic Sciences at East China Normal University. Trained in cultural and political geography, she has spent more than a decade investigating how China’s “silver economy” is reshaping everyday life, public policy and urban space. Her ethnographic and mixed-methods research shows how market reforms, health metrics and sensor-driven “smart” technologies together turn later-life care into a data-driven, investor-oriented industry, while simultaneously intensifying the emotional labour performed largely by migrant, feminised care workers.