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Short abstract

The introduction of assistive and domestic ageing technologies contradicts the autonomous ideal of “successful ageing” paradigm driven by the biopolitical governance of ageing. I show that rather than enhancing autonomy, these technologies reconfigure dependence and reshape the home experience.

Long abstract

In this paper, I present a grounded theory analysis of longitudinal textual and photographic data collected within the research project 'Aging Humans, Changing Homes' (led by Prof. Hummel) focusing on the reconfiguration of home after the introduction of a socio-technical “object of ageing”. The corpus consists of semi-structured interviews conducted with frail elderly people in the Geneva area (Switzerland/France) and Brittany (France).

Adopting a critical geography of ageing approach (Yu, 2025), I aim to highlight the paradox between the autonomy ideal of 'successful ageing' (Rowe & Kahn, 1997) driven by biopolitical governance of ageing agenda, and the everyday use of assistive and domestic ageing technologies, which lead to dependency. This contradiction challenges the socio-technical imaginaries (Jassanof & Kim, 2009) surrounding these objects, which are introduced into homes by external actors. Our data shows that, in order to use these technologies, stakeholders develop forms of dependence on relatives or care workers. This loss of autonomy is experienced as a loss of control over daily life and the domestic space itself, where the boundaries between the private and public space become increasingly blurred. However, ageing individuals regain a sense of agency by actively contesting this introduction. They also resist and subvert these technological objects through disengagement, modification or non-use (King & Woods, 2018 ; Yu, 2024 ; 2025). In doing so, they reshape the technological narrative of the socio-technical imaginaries and the experience of home itself.