Prof. Dr. Richard Pieper, University of Bamberg, Germany

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Industrial societies are ageing – and so are all of us , including the person we have come together at this lunch meeting to honor: Prof. Herman Bouma.

Gerontechnology (GT) is, in fact, very young and still developing – but so is, in a sense, Prof. Bouma, because he is still a vital motor of the development of GT.

GT as a discipline is combining social sciences and natural and engineering sciences including design. And again, it is one of the important achievements of Prof. Bouma to have integrated in a most fruitful way the perspectives of different sciences into this new field of research and development, bridging the gaps and bringing together scholars and professionals from very different walks of life, but each related to the life of the elderly in our society.

GT as a name for the new born child is basically a synthesis of gerontology and technology, a creative invention that proved to direct the focus to everyday life situations of "normal" older persons rather than to special groups such as impaired, disabled or sick persons which all too often dominate our perception of old age.

And certainly, it is Prof. Bouma again who from the very start of his concentration on the needs of the elderly for technological support emphasized an outlook on old age which was not preoccupied with deficits and impairments, but was directed toward the active role and involvement of the elderly in social life.

Considering the fact that demographic developments are among the most stable and predictable trends in societies it is quite surprising that not before the early eighties the coming "crisis of an ageing society" was recognized by the scientific community. And Prof. Bouma was among the first to realize the importance of technology for the future life quality of older generations.

Certainly, there are many "fathers" to the child of gerontechnology, especially claiming from hind side. It is an extremely interdisciplinary endeavor and integrating many research traditions. But specifically in the center of GT – at the interface of gerontology and ergonomics, for instance – we have to admit that persons beyond the age of employment were not an established target group of scientific interest.

The industrial society was considered a working society, and then a young consumer society, and it was only recently, that the elderly received attention

• as a burden to consumer orientations – because of the costs of the welfare systems and
• as a promising consumer group – because of a generation of rather well-to-do elderly appearing on the market.

Only recently the elderly have the benefit of a respected object of a more comprehensive scientific, economic and political attention.

There are different paradigms of research on ageing and technology, and I would like to distinguish at least three paradigms:

First, there is the paradigm of age as a life phase of increasing impairments, disabilities and diseases. More recently, a perspective of public health is adopted. In this paradigm the achievements of R&D for younger disabled persons are transferred to the target group of the elderly, and, in fact, especially when focussing on technologies and basic functions such as mobility, there are a lot of insights and developments to be fruitfully applied to the case of ageing.

But, as Prof. Bouma was never failing to insist, the needs and interests of the "normal" elderly cannot simply be equated with the needs and interests of disabled persons.

They have their own outlook on life.

Second, there is the paradigm of a barrier-free environment and design for all. And certainly, this powerful "movement" in science, technology, design, architecture, and social and urban planning as well as politics has already accomplished a lot of improvements also for the older population by stressing the importance of accessibility and social participation as a human right for all.

But still, I understand Prof. Bouma to insist that design for all is not the whole story.

In the third paradigm, the elderly are seen as a socio-cultural and socio-economic group of their own in society, they have evolved as a distinct age group (like the children and youth culture before them) only recently in our society – at last in a historical and socio-economic perspective. Those "gained 30 years" beyond the age of 60 – as a German colleague Prof. Imhof likes to address this phase of the life cycle – are a late achievement in modern society. After generations who saw themselves as young and never ageing, we now observe a new ageing generation with a new and much more positive outlook on a life beyond work and employment, with new interests and evolving life styles.

In this situation, the search for technological support of independent living is not so much or not only a search for assistive or rehabilitation technology, it is as much as search for technology "fit for fun and function" in old age. It calls for everyday house holding to be supported by technology, as well as for leisure, sports, entertainment or education. "Seniors in the Internet" are most recent examples for this paradigm, demonstrating that even the latest developments in ICT are or can and should be made accessible and adaptable to life in old age. And as a self conscious and independent group of consumers the elderly more and more request to be respected and accepted as partners in the development of technologies, services and environments fit to their evolving and changing needs and interests.

And again, Prof. Bouma has been in the forefront of those promoting the active involvement and empowerment of the "end users" or consumers on a shifting market.

This basic orientation on technology and ageing was developed in a pronounced way in The Netherlands under the guidance of Prof. Bouma. It was clearly articulated on The First Conference on GT in 1991 and resulted in the foundation of the first Institute of Gerontechnology in 1994 – and it has strongly influenced the first generation of scholars and professionals who addressed themselves to the themes of ageing and technology . And this means all of us, who are today reflecting on the past twelve years or so.

And it has not only influenced the scholars closely related to the TUE, but it has exerted great impact on other developments in The Netherlands, in Europe, the USA and Japan. Reference to these developments will be made by other contributions today by colleagues more acquainted with these developments of GT.

The impact especially on the European scene, as I see it, can hardly be overestimated. Within the Fourth Framework of the EU already a strong and successful influence of Prof. Boumas concept of GT was exerted in programs such as COST A5, COST 219, Telematics Applications, and BIOMED2 – to name just a few outstanding examples clearly carrying the mark of GT "Made in Eindhoven".

The second conference of GT in Helsinki in 1996 not only established the importance of this new discipline in the field of ageing and technology, it also marked the stage of broadening the influence clearly to an international level.

The International Society for Gerontechnology was the natural next step. In the cooperation with institutions, initiatives and networks - such as the DAN (Design for Ageing Network) – in Europe and abroad the discipline was established and the Third International Conference in coming October in Munich can be expected to be another step in the development of the GT network.

The fact that the Fifth Framework of the EU, which was issuing its first calls for project proposals in these days, clearly recognizes the role of the elderly in future society can and should be attributed also to the effect that successful initiatives such as COST A5 and projects guided by the approach of GT had on the formulation of European policy goals.

Certainly, GT has not achieved all its goals. In fact, one of the major concerns of Prof. Bouma, namely, to establish an infrastructure of institutions and technology centers dedicated to the proliferation of GT knowledge into education, research, product development, marketing strategies for the "silver market", and social policies has only begun and certainly needs the concerted efforts of all experts and professionals in the field as well as of the elderly themselves to continue the process of dissemination and consolidation.

But today we have come together to honor the central contribution of Prof. Bouma to the genesis and growth of GT. Unfortunately, I did not have the privilege of close and direct cooperation with Prof. Bouma. But he was holding his hand over at least one of my projects, and I learned from the people around him tremendously with which I had close contacts like Jan Graafmans and Jan Rietsema and the COST A5 network - people who made me follow the directions and principles of the GT approach which is intimately connected to Prof. Boumas name and work.

Therefore, I am proud and honored to express the indebtedness and deep thanks on behalf of the International Society for Gerontechnology and our congratulations to the today`s event.

We hope to get and we expect him to give what we got in the past

inspiration and leadership for the cause of GT

also into the next Millenium.

And we wish him the happiness, the health and – should I say – the social support from his wife and, if needed, the technological support from the technology centers he initiated – to make lively, autonomous, and independent future contributions to GT for the benefit of all of us, ageing and aged.

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