2026 Annual Meeting – Call for Papers

2026 Annual Meeting

Shaping Inclusive AI for Ageing Societies

 

Hanna Barakat & Cambridge Diversity Fund / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

22 – 23 October 2026

Berlin Social Science Centre

Reichpietschufer 50

10785 Berlin

 

The Socio-gerontechnology Network, together with the Ageism in AI project (AGEAI) invites proposals for papers, posters, and special sessions for the 2026 Annual Meeting by 15th of March 2026. The conference will be held at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2026.

The Socio-gerontechnology Network

Socio-gerontechnology is an interdisciplinary and international network fostering critical thinking, theory, research, and support of early career researchers on the intersections of ageing, technology and society. Socio-gerontechnology is a collaborative, inclusive and engaging network, providing an open space for in-depth discussion and reflection, while actively facilitating engagement with the experiences of older adults, organisations, and policy makers. It is our aim to be the avantgarde of critical thinking on ageing, technology and society, inspiring innovations and policies to enhance the quality of life and social equality for older adults worldwide.

AnyageAI project

The AnyAgeAI is an interdisciplinary project that examines how ageism manifests in algorithmic systems and explores pathways to advance algorithmic fairness in ageing societies. In cooperation with researchers from the Open University of Catalonia (Spain), Leiden University (The Netherlands), and the University of Brighton (UK), the project investigates high-risk areas of AI deployment—such as healthcare, employment and recruiting, mobility, and credit scoring—identified under the EU AI Act (2024). The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany) for the period 2023–2027.

The 2026 Meeting Theme: Shaping inclusive AI for ageing societies

Technologies are continuously evolving. In recent years, attention has increasingly shifted towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a catch-all term. Data infrastructures and algorithmic technologies are now deeply embedded in the systems that shape older adults’ everyday lives, care practices, and social participation. Decisions about how AI is designed, trained, and governed directly influence whether these technologies support older adults’ needs, reinforce (and generate) ageist assumptions, or deepen existing inequalities. Thus, it represents new challenges and research opportunities in the area of socio-gerontechnologies.

This annual meeting focuses on the many engaglements of AI, including its discourses, design, implementation and use in the lives of older adults. Understood in a broad sense, AI has been integrated in different aspects of everyday life, including interpersonal relationships, access to information and basic services. It has been integrated in voice assistants, sensor systems which recognize emergency situations such as falls, assistive smart home arrangements, or care robots.

This year’s meeting focuses in particular on inclusion, as it is one of the main challenges of AI in relation to ageing and older adults. On the one hand, AI systems often fail to represent the diversity of society, which is expressed in biased outputs. On the other hand, AI systems can become a burden for users, when the use of AI is imposed on various  aspects of life. Such technologies are not per se inclusive, since they do not automatically cater to everyone’s needs, (dis)abilities or realities. Technology usage affords competencies and knowledge as well as the learning of new skills which might materialise as access barriers. Additionally, age biases and normative assumptions about users’ bodies and capabilities ingrained in the design of technologies might hinder the intended usage.

Endeavours to allow more people the usage of certain technologies and access to services are plenty. Calls for more inclusion are often accompanied by the magic word participatory design, but questioning who is actually able to join test trials and participate in co-designing technologies, invitations to participate might nevertheless exclude groups of persons. Ultimately, the claim for inclusion is often accompanied by the promise that technologies may work seamlessly, i.e., users do not need any skills or learning and technologies can be handled naturally without any effort. Although older adults tinker with technologies and customise gadgets to their own needs, not everyone is sufficiently tech-savvy to do this mediation work. The additional task to make AI work is put on the shoulders of informal and formal caregivers, or medical personnel who have to personalise, explain, update, maintain, and repair technologies.

The annual meeting invites abstracts which contribute with a variety of empirical or conceptual approaches, as well as methodological considerations. We look particularly forward to interdisciplinary research from the fields of age studies, science and technology studies (STS), anthropology, sociology, human-computer interactions (HCI), media studies, critical design studies or education. We invite talks which engage with a critique of all-inclusivity and design approaches who promise access for all, imaginaries of inclusion in tech design, conceptual approaches to inclusion and its pitfalls, case studies on users participating in test trials, speculative encounters with future users as well as the potential harms of being forcefully included and made to use AI. We look forward to investigations questioning how technologies such as voice assistants, translation programs, speech recognition or service platforms specifically provide or obstruct access to the social sphere and allow for participation in everyday life. We also invite papers of more general relevance to the work of the network.

Submissions may include, but are not limited to:

  • Challenging new forms of exclusions, digital divides and imaginaries of AI and inclusion
  • Imagining ageing futures through and with AI
  • AI use, datafication and resistance amongst older adults
  • Design justice and digital innovation
  • New forms of ageism and age representations in AI
  • Ethical reflections on AI and its consequences for justice and fairness for (ageing) humans as well as nonhumans and the climate
  • Interdisciplinary encounters in AI practice and research and approaches to care in a more-than-human perspective
  • Ageing and AI in the global South and cross-cultural comparisons
  • Reflections on creativity and AI’s impact on creative processes, teaching and learning
  • Critical reflections on practices of theorizing in socio-gerontechnology
  • (Intersectional) life course approaches in increasingly digitalized societies
  • Mediated practices and forms of ageing-and-place
  • Digital capitalism and the Silver Economy

The Call

We invite submissions for papers, posters and special sessions:

  • A paper includes the presentation by at least one of the authors as part of the conference programme.
  • A poster includes the exhibit of a poster during dedicated poster sessions and throughout the conference.
  • A special session is a dedicated 1,5 hour slot at the conference, which may include a set of paper presentations (symposium) around a particular theme, but also alternative formats like a panel discussion, an interactive workshop, an open space, or any other form. If you suggest a special session, please already include details about participants and the format (for instance, if you suggest a closed paper session, please include the titles of individual presentations and the names of contributors).

Abstract submissions should include:

  • Title and the name(s) and e-mail address(es) of the author(s).
  • Abstract type: Paper presentation / poster / Special session
  • Abstract of max 350 words; for special session – max 1000 words, including abstracts of the presentations in case of a symposium
  • Expression of interest in joining the early career researchers workshop (21st of October)
  • If applicable, motivation for applying for a travel stipend

Please submit your paper, poster or session proposal via e-mail to conference2026@socio-gerontechnology.net by  31 March 2026. Please make clear who the corresponding author is, including their contact details and affiliation.

Key Dates

30 April: Authors will be notified about acceptance/rejection (planned).
4 May: Registration for the conference opens.
1 July: Programme will be announced (planned)
15 September: Registration closes
21 October: Workshop for Early Career Researchers (see details below)
22-23 October: Conference

Socio-gerontechnology Early Career Researcher workshop 21st of October

The conference will be preceded by an Early Career Researcher Day on 21st of October, offering early career researchers the opportunity to connect and exchange ideas in an informal setting. The day will include an input session (speaker to be announced) as well as dedicated time for networking and discussion among participants. This pre-conference event aims to foster collaboration and strengthen the ECR community within the network. Please indicate in your abstract submission email if you are interested to join this ECR day.

Conference Fees

More information about the participation fee will be announced at later stages. The maximal fee for members of the Socio-gerontechnology Network will not exceed 50 Euros and for non-members 100 EUR . A reduced fee will be available for students (including PhD students), un/underemployed scholars or scholars from non-OECD countries.

Socio-gerontechnology Travel Stipends

We are happy to announce that several travel stipends of 400 EUR max will be available for presenting a paper or poster at the conference. Presenters who are eligible for a reduced conference fee can apply for a travel stipend. Please include your motivation for applying for a travel stipend in your abstract submission, including a statement of your own evaluation of your career stage or status.

Organisation Committee

  • Justyna Stypińska, AnyAgeAI Project Lead, WZB/ Guestprofessor at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
  • Ittay Mannheim, Post-doc AnyAgeAI project, Department of Methodology and Statistics, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University
  • Andrea Rosales, Principal investigator AnyAGEAI project, Associate Professor, Communication School, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
  • Simone Anna Felding, University of Copenhagen, Department of Public Health, Denmark
  • Mathias Denecke, Ruhr-University Bochum, Department of Media Studies
  • Alexander Peine, Chair of the Executive Board of the Socio-gerontechnology Network, Open University of The Netherlands

This conference is hosted by The WZB Berlin Social Science Center. WZB investigates fundamental societal issues. Our focus is on education and work, markets and choice, migration, democracy and autocracy, international politics and law. At the WZB, researchers from various disciplines work together – mainly from sociology, political science, economics, law and psychology.