The work of the network is contextualised by current debates around and investment in technological and social innovation as response to the challenge of global ageing, and the increasing costs of social and health care. So far, these debates and investments have not yet created the scale and impact originally hoped for. Policy makers, investors and practitioners alike are recognising the need to go beyond cost-efficiency and business models in assessing the relevance of innovations, and develop more comprehensive models that acknowledge how new and existing technology is dramatically changing the way ageing is experienced, defined and valued.
The critical perspective of Socio-gerontechnology is a critical intervention in this regard. It opens up technological and social innovation to more empirically-grounded and complex theorisations of ageing-technology relations. Specifically, it sets out more critical and interdisciplinary research on ageing-technology relations as well as forms of intervening in the configuration of these relations, for example through the design of new technologies, products and services, that are more inclusive and more ethically aware of their intended and non-intended consequences.