Implementing a sociotechnical network for welfare technology in a small Swedish municipality: bringing the invisible work into the light
Year: 2025
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: In Sweden, welfare services are a responsibility of the municipal authorities and they increasingly implement digital technologies, such as real-time monitoring of the elderly, at-home health monitoring, or even air quality monitoring, to use limited public resources. This work aims to analyze how welfare technology (an umbrella term for technologies like night-watch cameras, medical dispensers, digital key caches, etc.) is implemented in everyday practice in a small Swedish municipality. We engage in the case by making use of a folktale to show how the digitalization of welfare services involves many different stakeholders, from design to the delivery of the service, and different ingredients to be maintained. Our conclusion is that welfare technology is not a mere technological fix when providing welfare; we should ensure that the (invisible) work of maintenance and keeping up to date among nurses and care staff is acknowledged when responsibility is outsourced to them.
Source: Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks
Authors: Karin Skill, Vangelis Angelakis
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4413680955