Viivi Korpela is a Doctoral Researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare), University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her PhD, Signing in to Society: Reflections on Digital Skills, Support and Inclusion in Later Life, explores how older adults navigate digital transformation, acquire digital skills, and engage as digital citizens. Her research focuses on digital inclusion and digital citizenship, with a particular emphasis on informal and non-formal forms of digital support such as peer tutoring and family assistance.
Korpela’s work highlights the complexity of later-life digital engagement, introducing the concept of situational digital citizenship to describe how older adults selectively participate in or resist digital society. Across her publications, she has examined the role of family and friends in supporting digital skills, the dynamics of peer-led digital support, and older adults’ experiences with digital health services.
Her contribution to the field of socio-gerontechnology lies in foregrounding older adults’ voices and agency in technology-related debates, while also challenging binary discourses of digital inclusion/exclusion. She actively collaborates in Nordic and international projects on ageing, digitalization, and media literacy.