Date and time: 24-25 September 2025
Title: 7th Annual Meeting of the Socio-gerontechnology Network
Where: Digital Futures hub, Osquars Backe 5, floor 2 at KTH main campus
Directions: https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/contact/how-to-get-here/
The Socio-gerontechnology Network together with KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Digital Futures, Dalarna University and Lund University invites proposals for papers, posters, and sessions to be submitted to the 2025 Annual Meeting by 15th March 2025.
The Socio-gerontechnology Network
Since its inaugural meeting in 2017, the Socio-gerontechnology Network has provided a forum for interdisciplinary scholarship that explores the complex relations between ageing, technology, and society from various social sciences and humanities perspectives. Drawing on perspectives, theories, and methods from Age Studies (AS), STS, Critical Data Studies, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Social, Cultural, and Critical Gerontology as well as (new) materialist sociology, the network aims at providing an interdisciplinary space for researchers interested in critical explorations of demographic and technological change. The network embraces both early and more established academic scholars and meets once a year.
The 2025 Meeting Theme: Imaginaries and Assemblages of Ageing Futures
As a consequence of rapid development of artificial intelligence and datafication in the context of health, care and education, new imaginaries and expectations towards technological artefacts and systems shape the socio-technical imaginaries of ageing and later life. These imaginaries vary from techno-optimism of healthy and active ageing to more critical and reflective approaches that draw attention to social, cultural, political, historical and geographical impacts of the uptake of AI. Socio-gerontechnologists, social scientists and other researchers studying digitalisation and datafication of society are increasingly involved in technical developments, while engineers and data scientists are also required to evaluate the societal impact of technologies driven by AI and machine learning.
Social and cultural gerontology and related disciplines have traditionally drawn attention to embeddedness of values, ideals and concepts of ageing in datafied futures, whereas data-driven approaches often aim to accelerate the datafication from the systems perspective. In the context of datafied societies, embracing dialogues between these approaches can enrich the knowledge and understanding of ageing futures and contribute to more socially conscious technological development. Against this background, this event aims to raise awareness of the potentials and challenges – the imaginaries and assemblages – of interdisciplinary research in the field of Socio-gerontechnology. It also aims to share transformative knowledge that can contribute to policy and technological development for ageing futures in datafied societies.
The Call
We look forward to discussing these questions with you at our 2025 Annual Conference and invite submissions for papers, posters, thematic sessions, and workshops. The detailed call for papers, including the Abstract Submission Form, is published at the Socio-Gerontechnology Network Website: https://www.socio-gerontechnology.net/2025-annual-meeting-call-for-papers/
Organisation Committee
- Sanna Kuoppamäki, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Health Systems, KTH
- Magdalena Kania-Lundholm, Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer, School of Culture and Society, Dalarna University
- Björn Fischer, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Design Sciences, Lund University
From the Executive Board of Socio-Gerontechnology Network
- Wendy Martin, Chair of the Event Committee, Brunel University London, Global Public Health, UK
- Alexander Peine, Chair of the Executive Committee, Open University of the Netherlands, Department of Digital Culture, Innovation, Communication, the Netherlands
For program and registration, please go to the the Socio-Gerontechnology Network Website: https://www.socio-gerontechnology.net/2025-annual-meeting-call-for-papers/
This conference is hosted by KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Dalarna University, Lund University and the Socio-Gerontechnology Network. The conference is co-sponsored by Digital Futures.
