Algorithmic assemblages of care

Imaginaries, Epistemologies and Repair Work

Bibliographic Data

ID2249552
AuthorsNete Schwennesen (0000-0002-2080-0377, Department of Anthropology & Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies Department of Public Health Copenhagen University Copenhagen Denmark, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume41
IssueS1
Pages176-192
Publication date2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.12900
PMID31599986
OpenAlexW2979783961
LanguageEN
Citations received50
References cited38

In the past decade, the figure of the algorithm has emerged as a matter of concern in discussions about the current state of the healthcare sector and what it may become. While analytical focus has mainly centred on 'algorithmic entities', the paper argues that we have to move our analytical focus towards 'algorithmic assemblages', if we are to understand how advanced algorithms will affect health care. Departing from this figure, the paper explores how an algorithmic system, designed to 'take on' the role of a physiotherapist in physical rehabilitation programmes in Denmark, was designed and made to work in practice. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork, it is demonstrated that the algorithmic system is a fragile accomplishment and outcome of negotiations between the imaginaries embedded in its design and the ongoing adjustments ofITworkers, patients and professionals. Drawing on recent work on the fragility and incompleteness of algorithms, it is suggested that the algorithmic system needs to be creatively 'repaired' to build and maintain enabling connections between bodies in-motion and professionals in arrangements of care. The paper concludes by addressing accountability for the workings of algorithmic systems in medical practice, suggesting that such questions must also be discussed in relation to encounters between algorithmic imaginaries, health professionals and patients, and the various forms of 'repair work' needed to enable algorithmic systems to work in practice. Such acts of accountability cannot be understood within an ethics of transparency, but are better thought of as an ethics of 'response-ability', given the need to intervene and engage with the open-ended outcomes of algorithmic systems

Accountability · Computer security · Economics · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Ethnography · Focus (optics) · Health care · Management science · Negotiation · Outcome (game theory) · Political science · Public relations · Relation (database) · Social science · Sociology · Transparency (behavior) · Work (physics) · Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation · Computer Science · Engineering · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Law

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access