Technology Design for Community-Based Care in Rural Contexts: National Conditions and Local Practices
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This workshop examines how innovative digital technologies can improve and reshape health, care and social services in more integrative, community-oriented, and ethically grounded ways. It focuses on how these dynamics unfold across different national welfare and care regimes and in rural areas. Framing these challenges through HCI and CSCW lenses, we emphasize socio-technical systems, participatory design, and human-centred approaches. While macro-level frameworks shape institutional conditions, care is ultimately enacted through local practices shaped by social, cultural, and infrastructural contexts. These local practices are also shaped by technological infrastructures, a perspective emphasized in CHI research on socio-technical systems and participatory care design. The workshop addresses how digital tools can foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders and how participatory design and socio-technical approaches can ensure these tools are context-sensitive and inclusive. Emphasizing interdisciplinarity, the workshop brings together researchers from CSCW, HCI, sociology, social work, healthcare, public administration, and technology development. Through collaborative discussions, participants will examine how institutional conditions affect local care provision, explore strategies for par-ticipatory design, and identify generalizable and context-specific challenges in digitalizing social services. The goal is to foster theoretical and practical insights that bridge disciplinary boundaries and inform the design of equitable, sustainable, and responsive digital infrastructures for community-based care.
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204837849