"Smart" homes for an ageing society - between care, control and networked empowerment

该项目研究了所谓的老年人智能家居。因此，它解决了当前两大社会趋势的交集——人口变化和数字化——在家庭空间中。该项目的出发点是，作为老年人日常生活的中心空间，目前正在通过引入辅助技术进行深刻的变革。通过详细观察这些转变过程，该项目强调了当前社会技术变革对空间的影响。它不认为数字技术是被动的工具，而是文化意义、社会规范和行为改变的积极媒介。为了理解这些过程，该项目结合了一系列定性研究方法（定性访谈、参与性观察、文件分析），并解决了三个核心问题：该项目首先询问了关于老年和老年人生活状况的想法如何塑造了家庭辅助技术的发展，以及这些想法如何成为旨在帮助老年人的设备的实质性内容。因此，该项目将辅助技术的发展视为一个积极参与时代社会技术建设的社会领域。其次，该项目询问老年人的日常生活如何随着家中新辅助技术的引入而发生变化。在这里，项目关注的是设计师所设想的使用者与老年人的实际生活和需求之间的紧张关系。第三，该项目关注数字化护理带来的家庭护理日益重要的问题。它调查了数字技术如何改变护理实践的实质性，以及需要护理的老年人、护理工作者和护理亲属之间的关系。因此，该项目有助于老龄化地理学的研究，并通过对智能家居的关注，解决了正在进行的关于数字化空间的地理辩论中的盲点。

The project examines so-called smart homes for the elderly. It thereby addresses the intersection of two current social megatrends - demographic change and digitization - in the space of the home. The project starts from the assumption that the home as a central space of everyday life for the elderly is currently undergoing a profound transformation through the introduction of assistive technologies. By looking at these transformation processes in detail, the project foregrounds the spatial implications of current socio-technical change. It does not consider digital technologies as passive instruments, but as active mediators of cultural meanings, social norms and behavioral change. In order to understand these processes, the project combines a series of qualitative research methods (qualitative interviews, participant observation, document analysis) and addresses three central questions: The project first asks how ideas about old age and the living situations of older people shape the development of assistive technologies for the home and how these ideas become materially inscribed in devices designed to help the elderly. The project thus looks at the development of assistive technologies as a social field that is actively involved in the socio-technical construction of age. Second, the project asks how the everyday life of the elderly is changing with the introduction of new assistive technologies in the home. Here, the project focuses on the tensions between the designers’ projected user on the one hand, and the actual living realities and needs of older people on the other. Third, the project focusses on the growing importance of home care brought forward by the digitization of care. It investigates how digital technologies change the materiality of care practices and the relationships between older people in need of care, care workers and caring relatives. The project thus contributes to research on geographies of ageing and, through the focus on smart homes, also addresses blind spots in the ongoing geographical debate on spaces of digitization.