Digital services in eldercare : exploring the dualities in the domestication of welfare technologies
Frennert, Susanne LU
and Skagert, Katrin
(2025)
The 15th NOVO-SymposiumLeadership for future challenges in healthcare
- Abstract
- Introduction
The implementation of welfare technologies in Swedish eldercare reflects ongoing sociotechnical transitions, which promise to optimise care practices and administrative processes.
Aim
Our study explores how eldercare personnel interpret and ascribe meanings to welfare technologies in their everyday care work.
Material and Methods
The study draws on an empirical dataset comprising 181 photographs and accompanying textual narratives from 61 participants across four municipalities in southern Sweden. Thematic analysis was employed to identify patterns in how welfare technologies are conceptualised and utilised. Perceived "convenience" emerged as a recurring analytical category. Perceived... (More) - Introduction
The implementation of welfare technologies in Swedish eldercare reflects ongoing sociotechnical transitions, which promise to optimise care practices and administrative processes.
Aim
Our study explores how eldercare personnel interpret and ascribe meanings to welfare technologies in their everyday care work.
Material and Methods
The study draws on an empirical dataset comprising 181 photographs and accompanying textual narratives from 61 participants across four municipalities in southern Sweden. Thematic analysis was employed to identify patterns in how welfare technologies are conceptualised and utilised. Perceived "convenience" emerged as a recurring analytical category. Perceived "convenience" was analysed through the lens of sociotechnical configurations and user interpretations to elucidate the multifaceted roles of welfare technologies in care work.
Results
Participants framed welfare technologies within broader cultural narratives of technological solutionism, reflecting policy discourses that promote welfare technologies as tools for feelings of safety, fostering independence and enhancing activity among care recipients. Six dimensions of perceived convenience were identified: remote surveillance, logistics, communication, safety, comfort and activation. The dimensions of perceived convenience illustrate how welfare technologies mediate care practices and relational engagements. Instances of "inconvenience" were also reported, attributed to issues such as technical rigidity, operational inefficiencies and task redundancies.
Conclusions
Our study contributes to understanding the domestication of welfare technologies as a sociotechnical process shaped by care practices, policy imperatives and broader cultural imaginaries. While perceived convenience emerged as a central theme, it cannot be reduced to a singularly positive attribute but instead reflects the co-constitutive dynamics of human and technological actors. Welfare technologies, such as surveillance cameras/ sensors and robotic pets, were often perceived as mediators of care, substituting physical proximity with technological interaction. Our findings highlight how welfare technologies reconfigure care relationships, operational logics and value systems, thereby reinforcing as well as challenging dominant discourses of technological solutionism and care optimisation.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/46f70496-0d45-4956-8eda-52e0d04ed7d8
- author
- Frennert, Susanne
LU
and Skagert, Katrin
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-05-09
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Eldercare, Sweden, Eldercare personnel, Welfare technologies, Åldringsvård, Sverige, Vårdpersonal, Välfärdsteknologier
- conference name
- The 15th NOVO-Symposium<br/>Leadership for future challenges in healthcare
- conference location
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- conference dates
- 2025-05-07 - 2025-05-09
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 46f70496-0d45-4956-8eda-52e0d04ed7d8
- date added to LUP
- 2025-05-12 17:24:49
- date last changed
- 2025-05-13 09:24:55
@misc{46f70496-0d45-4956-8eda-52e0d04ed7d8,
abstract = {{Introduction<br/>The implementation of welfare technologies in Swedish eldercare reflects ongoing sociotechnical transitions, which promise to optimise care practices and administrative processes. <br/><br/>Aim<br/>Our study explores how eldercare personnel interpret and ascribe meanings to welfare technologies in their everyday care work.<br/><br/>Material and Methods<br/>The study draws on an empirical dataset comprising 181 photographs and accompanying textual narratives from 61 participants across four municipalities in southern Sweden. Thematic analysis was employed to identify patterns in how welfare technologies are conceptualised and utilised. Perceived "convenience" emerged as a recurring analytical category. Perceived "convenience" was analysed through the lens of sociotechnical configurations and user interpretations to elucidate the multifaceted roles of welfare technologies in care work.<br/><br/>Results<br/>Participants framed welfare technologies within broader cultural narratives of technological solutionism, reflecting policy discourses that promote welfare technologies as tools for feelings of safety, fostering independence and enhancing activity among care recipients. Six dimensions of perceived convenience were identified: remote surveillance, logistics, communication, safety, comfort and activation. The dimensions of perceived convenience illustrate how welfare technologies mediate care practices and relational engagements. Instances of "inconvenience" were also reported, attributed to issues such as technical rigidity, operational inefficiencies and task redundancies.<br/><br/>Conclusions<br/>Our study contributes to understanding the domestication of welfare technologies as a sociotechnical process shaped by care practices, policy imperatives and broader cultural imaginaries. While perceived convenience emerged as a central theme, it cannot be reduced to a singularly positive attribute but instead reflects the co-constitutive dynamics of human and technological actors. Welfare technologies, such as surveillance cameras/ sensors and robotic pets, were often perceived as mediators of care, substituting physical proximity with technological interaction. Our findings highlight how welfare technologies reconfigure care relationships, operational logics and value systems, thereby reinforcing as well as challenging dominant discourses of technological solutionism and care optimisation.<br/>}},
author = {{Frennert, Susanne and Skagert, Katrin}},
keywords = {{Eldercare; Sweden; Eldercare personnel; Welfare technologies; Åldringsvård; Sverige; Vårdpersonal; Välfärdsteknologier}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{05}},
title = {{Digital services in eldercare : exploring the dualities in the domestication of welfare technologies}},
year = {{2025}},
}