Enchanting, Evoking, and Affecting: The Invisible Work of Technology Implementation in Homecare

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.v9iS5.112690

Keywords:

Health, Working Environment & Wellbeing, Innovation & Productivity, Gender, Ethnicity, Age and Diversity

Abstract

New technologies are implemented in health care with the promises of replacing care work, but implementing technology into care also requires a lot of work. On the basis of ethnographic field- work in a Danish homecare unit, this paper explores a phenomenon increasingly pervading the work of health care personnel in the Nordic countries and other welfare states around the world; the implementation of technology in health and elder care.The paper asks what work is involved in making new technologies enter health and elder care. Drawing on STS research on technology implementation, the paper analyses the invisible work of technology implementation, a complex process that involves skilled affective, symbolic, and evocative practices such as enchanting, affect- ing, and evoking certain imaginaries and beliefs.What is being implemented along these processes, the paper argues is not only technology, but also new municipal and home care workers reconfig- ured as ‘implementation agents’, and ‘digital older citizens’.

Author Biography

Marie Ertner, Copenhagen University, Center for Healthy Aging, and IT University of Copenhagen

Marie_Ertner2.png

PhD. E-mail: marie.ertner@gmail.com

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Published

2019-03-02

How to Cite

Ertner, M. (2019). Enchanting, Evoking, and Affecting: The Invisible Work of Technology Implementation in Homecare. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 9(S5). https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.v9iS5.112690