Smart housing and the question of care/risk management versus respect: towards information and advice and acts of kindness.

Abstract

This paper will introduce some of the developments in ‘Smart Housing’ that seek to reduce risk and enable independent living for older, more frail people. However, these developments will be critiqued in the context of an older person’s wish to live in their chosen environment in their own chosen way. The paper will rehearse recent work on information and advice giving to enhance housing choice, and the importance of minor acts of kindness as urban repair, as part of civil society, and representing the key underlying philosophy to embed before smart housing is imposed as a received social good. The paper will introduce a housing initiative in Dorset that is building around these concepts. The paper will consider the following areas: • The context of our ageing populations • 15 years of smart technology in homes • Benefits of smart technology and the future • Problematizing smart technology • The importance of information and advice giving – recent research and gaps • Minor acts of kindness as urban repair and good living