2026-08-23T06:36:30Zhttps://docta.ucm.es/rest/oai/request
oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/1347312026-04-15T00:02:52Zcom_20.500.14352_14col_20.500.14352_15
Docta Complutense author Alonso González, David author Arias Astray, Andrés author Brea Iglesias, Juan author Muñoz Hernández, Susana 2026-04-14T11:22:19Z 2026-04-14T11:22:19Z 2026-03-24 Alonso González, D., Arias Astray, A., Brea-Iglesias, J., & Muñoz Hernández, S. (2026). Technology Adoption in Liquid Modernity: Toward a Relational Model of Appropriation in Later Life (REL(OA)TAM). Societies, 16(4), 103. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc16040103 10.3390/soc16040103 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/134731 https://doi.org/10.3390/soc16040103 https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/16/4/103 In conditions of liquid modernity, marked by accelerated technological change, the virtualization of essential services, and the erosion of stable institutional support, digital participation in later life is less a matter of initial access than of continuously renegotiating engagement within unstable socio-technical environments. While established technology adoption models such as TAM, UTAUT, and STAM have provided robust explanations of cognitive and age-related determinants of adoption, they remain limited in accounting for the relational processes through which technological engagement is learned, stabilized, and sustained over time. This article advances a relational perspective on technology appropriation by foregrounding the role of warm experts—trusted informal supporters who mediate learning, interpretation, and adaptation in everyday contexts. Moving beyond dyadic understandings of assistance, the paper conceptualizes mediation as a distributed ecology of roles embedded within relational networks that both enable and constrain digital inclusion. Building on this perspective, the study proposes the Relational Technology Appropriation Model (RELTAM) as a general multi-level architecture integrating individual determinants, relational mediation processes, and network-level support configurations within a dynamic framework of appropriation. The Relational (Older Adult) Technology Appropriation Model (REL(OA)TAM) is introduced as a context-specific instantiation of this broader framework, calibrated to the distinctive conditions of later life. By incorporating temporal instability and mediation ecologies as structural components, REL(OA)TAM offers a socially grounded account of digital inclusion as an ongoing process of adaptive negotiation within the fluid and uncertain conditions of liquid modernity. eng Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Technology Adoption in Liquid Modernity: Toward a Relational Model of Appropriation in Later Life (REL(OA)TAM) journal article 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URL https://docta.ucm.es/bitstreams/eef9eaef-e7b4-4e6e-a1a0-b8854311cc65/download File MD5 2ea3d4bbd6d18a938f2d843693378440 473106 application/pdf Technology Adoption in Liquid Modernity Toward a Relational Model of Appropriation in Later life.pdf