| Sumario: | Purpose Gerontechnology has been a successful project for a long time. However, critical voices accompany the development of Technology, Gerontology, and even science in general as well. Proponents and critics usually remain in their respective arenas or disciplinary perspectives. The paper will use examples from Critical Theory as well as results from earlier empirical research (Haux, Hein, Kolb, Künemund & Eichelberg, 2014; Künemund & Tanschus, 2013; Kunemund & Tanschus, 2014) to demonstrate the potential fruitfulness of self-reflection and critique for Gerontechnology. It is argued that multidisciplinarity allows to better avoid unintended side-effects and promote the development of successful Gerontechnology. The favoured strategy is "solution centered design" (Künemund, 2018), namely that Gerontechnology should start from an evaluation of a theoretical problem instead of user stories or personas, small and biased samples of potential users, or static representations from survey research. Results and Discussion Transdisciplinary approaches, e.g. those starting with participatory methods to identify user demands or needs, are criticized for its naivety. The conclusions highlight the necessity to start from theory in multidisciplinary teams (and, if necessary, empirical research) before employing technology development or defining research questions or applications.
|