Stratified users and technologies of empowerment

Theorising Social Inequalities in the Use and Perception of Diabetes Self-Management Technologies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2249698
AutoresEmil Øversveen (0000-0002-0126-5313, Department of Sociology and Political Science Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trodheim Norway, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen42
Número4
Páginas862-876
Fecha de publicación2020-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.13066
PMID32072666
OpenAlexW3008053020
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas49

Medical technologies of various kinds play an increasingly important role in medical treatment, but may also increase health inequalities if they are primarily used by high-status patients. While many have problematised inequalities in the material access to medical technologies, differences in use and perception are also salient for explaining the relationship between medical technologies and health inequalities. This article attempts to theorise these inequalities by bringing health inequality research into dialogue with social constructivist perspectives on user-technology relations. Based on qualitative interview data from a case study of the technological self-management of type 1 diabetes, I construct three clusters of technological practices and perceptions corresponding to three broad user types. These user types are then discussed in the context of patient empowerment and the promotion of the active, autonomous and self-reflective 'expert' patient in European health care systems. To the extent that they materialise and enforce institutional expectations which only the most resourceful patients will be able to live up to, medical technologies may serve to entrench and legitimate social inequalities in health and medical care. Research therefore needs not only to consider how medical technologies are distributed, but also their design and appropriation by users

Appropriation · Context (archaeology · Economic growth · Economics · Empowerment · Geography · Health care · Health literacy · Health technology · Inequality · Perception · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social inequality · Social science · Sociology · Health Informatics · Health Literacy and Information Accessibility · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Mobile Health and mHealth Applications · Psychology