2022 Annual Meeting – Looking back

2022 Annual Meeting

… in Bristol (UK) — see you all in Utrecht next year!

 

a report by Matthew Lariviere on behalf of the Conference Organising Team

The Socio-Gerontechnology Conference recently held its Fourth International Conference in Bristol, UK on the September 8th and 9th 2022. It was my first time attending the conference and the first time many others had the occasion to reconnect with longstanding colleagues and friends in person since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a brief review of the event to refresh our curiosity and consider future approaches for the network’s work.

We welcomed over 30 scholars from around the world to participate in the conference. Over a busy two days, we heard 13 papers with thematic foci spanning the co-constitution of technology in care; innovation and design; agentic robots and ageing; everyday navigation; and policy framings, future imaginaries, and predictive analytics. In addition to traditional academic papers, the conference also included 5 poster presentations from emerging international scholars. All the research presented grappled with empirical and methodological challenges and opportunities and drew on theoretical perspectives from material gerontology, STS, futures studies, and design research.

To coincide with local Bristolian research on ageing futures and creative approaches to ageing, the conference also included opportunities to explore the intersections of ageing and technology. Daniel López Gómez (Open University of Catalonia) chaired the first workshop on “Infrastructures for Well Connected Ageing” which included provocations on how infrastructuring ageing shifts and shapes variegated experiences of connectivity in later life. The second workshop, led by Juliane Jarke (University of Graz), explored alternative imaginaries of care futures, connectivity, and community in datafied societies through creative making and stories informed by speculative fiction. Demonstrations from Lillian Hung (University of British Columbia) and Louis Neven (Avans University) illustrated how their respective labs provide spaces for considered discussions with local partners and testbeds of innovation for aged care and support technologies. We also cannot forget Suzy West and her charming colleagues from Impelo dance studio who led a fantastic ‘dance for dementia’ session before our dinner at the River Station.

We hope you enjoyed the Fourth International Socio-Gerontechnology Conference and everything Bristol had to offer. I, personally, enjoyed meeting everyone in person whom I had long followed on Twitter and read about their work for many years.

We hope to see you in the Netherlands next year.

 

Conference Programme 

Thursday 8th September 2022

9-9.15am arrival, tea and coffee

9.15-9.45 Introductions and welcome – introductions to the University of Bristol, Ageing Futures, BDFI and Sociodigital Futures. Intros to the network and network futures. Ground rules.

9.45-10.45 Paper Session 1: The co-constitution of technology and care

CHAIR: Matthew Lariviere

  • The co-constitution of technology and care in UK home care. Dr Kate Hamblin, CIRCLE, University of Sheffield. Dr Diane Burns, School of Management, University of Sheffield, Dr Cate Goodlad, CIRCLE, University of Sheffield.
  • It just blinks’ – The becoming-older-with welfare technologies. Michela Cozza, Department of Organization and Management, Mälardalen University, Sweden

10.45- 11.15 BREAK, tea and coffee and fruit/biscuits

11.15-12.30: Paper Session 2: Innovation and design

CHAIR: Helen Manchester

  • Vitality as an inspiration for design? Lessons from a qualitative study among older adults with a sense of vitality. Louis Neven, Sophie Bouwens, Marleen Mares, Avans University
  • Do people with COPD dream of the same electric sheep? Bergschöld, J.M. SINTEF Digital. Dept of Health, Granås, S.B., SINTEF Digital. Dept of Health Anfinsen, M., SINTEF Digital. Dept of Health
  • Valuation in health and ageing innovation. A Covid-19 app thought experiment. Susan van Hees, Carla Greubel, Ellen Moors, Alexander Peine

12.30pm University of Bristol/Policy Press, Paul Stevens

LUNCH and Posters 12.45-2pm

2-.3.30pm WORKSHOP: “Infrastructures for well connected ageing”. Carla Gruebel (Utrecht University), Daniel López Gómez (Open University of Catalonia), Roser Beneito-Montagut (Cardiff University), Mònica Genover (Universitat de Barcelona), Alice Willatt (University of Bristol), Sanna Kuoppamäki (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)and Doris Lydahl (University of Gothenburg)

3.30pm Break, tea and coffee and cake

4- 5pm: Paper session 3

CHAIR: Juliane Jarke

  • Irritating Dyadic Interaction Concepts for Human-Robot Interaction – The Case of a Nautical Designed Plant Watering Robot for a Care Home. Andreas Bischof* & Philipp Graf, Chemnitz University of Technology
  • Using telepresence robots as a tool for virtual research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Lillian Hung1, Charlie Lake1, Joey Wong1, Ali Hussein, Jim Mann (UBC IDEALab, University of British Columbia), and Mario Gregorio (Alzheimer Society of Canada, Toronto, Canada)
  • Co-constitution of conversational agents for independent living among older adults. Sanna Kuoppamäki, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems, Sweden

5-5.30pm Dance for dementia workshop

SGT DINNER 7.15pm at River Station

Meet outside school of Education at 18.50 for walk down together or see you there at 7.15pm

Venue is: https://www.riverstation.co.uk/

 

Friday 9th September 2022

9.30-10.45: Paper Session 4: Everyday navigation

CHAIR: Daniel Lopez Gomez

  • Coping in the culture of connectivity: how older people make sense of living with digital ageism. Magdalena Kania-Lundholm, Dalarna University.
  • Arts and Health during the Covid-19 pandemic: how did creative professionals experience the transition to online delivery of arts and health interventions for older adults in Wales? Sofia Vougioukalou, Research Fellow, Y Lab, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
  • Technological entanglements: Explorations of the tangibility, sensuality and intimacy of technologies as we age. Alice Willatt and Helen Manchester, University of Bristol

10.45- 11 Break: tea, coffee and fruit/biscuits

11-12.15 Paper Session 5: Policy framings, future imaginaries and predictive analytics

CHAIR: Alexander Peine

  • Artificing care: Resolving contemporary care problems in imagined techno-futures. Matthew Lariviere, University of Bristol
  • What is an Algorithm? Expanding gerontology’s imagination on Ageing and Algorithms. Vera Gallistl, PhD, Karl Leandsteiner, University of Health Sciences, Krems, Austria
  • Visualizing the Datasphere: Representations of Old Bodies and their Data in Promotional Images of Smart Sensor Technologies for Ageing at Home, Kirsten L. Ellison [1], Wendy Martin [2], Isabel Pedersen [3] and Barbara L. Marshall [1]

12.15-1pm Poster session with authors (authors please be available at your posters during this time)

1pm- 2 LUNCH

2-3.30pm Workshop Imagining alternative futures for care, connectivity and community in datafied societies. Juliane Jarke, University of Bremen and Helen Manchester , University of Bristol

3.30pm Break. Tea, coffee and cake

4-4.30: Lab presentations. Lillian Hung and Louis Neven

4.30-5.30pm Alex Peine will lead SGT network meeting: bringing themes of the conference together and discussing what next? CONFERENCE ENDS