Dear Colleagues,
Please find below (or at this link
) the call
for abstracts for the stream "Algorithmic work in health and social care"
(ESPANET 2021 -, 31 aug-3 sept 2021).
Abstracts should be submitted by April 18 2021 through the conference
management tool https://www.conftool.pro/espanet2021/. The abstract should
not exceed the 400 word limit. The conference will be held completely
ONLINE.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Best regards
Paolo
Stream 4. Algorithmic work in health and social care
Francesco Miele, Paolo Giardullo
In health and social care sector algorithms – the coded instructions
through which data are filtered, sorted and processed – have recently
attracted the attention of scholars and policy makers (Ruckenstein and
Schüll, 2017). The emphasis on the role of algorithms in improving the
efficiency of care processes has been followed by an increased interest in
the design of algorithmic systems, to ‘take on’ professional tasks. A
particular attention has been paid to the role of algorithms in processing
big data, making previsions about social and health risks of a specific
target population, determining the likelihood of the latter of utilizing
specific services, supporting professionals in the delivery of
personalizing care plans (e.g. Bates et al., 2018; Kasthurirathne et al.,
2020). In order to manage the growing care demands – with particular
reference to people who are socially vulnerable and/or have important
health issues – algorithms have been often depicted as good allies for
reducing public expenditure and assuring the quality of care.
On other topics – e.g. the digitalization of low wage employments –
scholars have highlighted the negative implications related to the
diffusion of algorithms, underling how algorithmic technologies do not
emerge from a vacuum, rather they deliberately implement choices from
employers and incorporate their interests and values (e.g. Srnicek, 2019).
At the moment, while some computer scientists showed the algorithmic biases
in health care (Hu and Chen 2020) only a limited number of studies has
explored how algorithms are constructed from a social sciences perspective
– encompassing expertise, public policy goals, cultural assumptions from
managers and practitioners – and integrated in care processes –
interacting
with preexisting organizational cultures and practices, professional
identities and welfare arrangements (e.g. Schwennesen, 2019). In order to
fill this gap, we want to attract theoretical, empirical and methodological
reflections – from research areas such as social policy, social work,
science and technology studies and sociology of health and illness – about
the following (but not limited to) issues:
- Evaluation of the effects of algorithmic technologies (e.g. in terms
of cost-effectiveness analysis health conditions, quality of life);
- Algorithms and welfare system arrangements;
- Design processes and the co-construction of algorithms;
- Algorithmic fairness and marginalized groups (how algorithm can
contribute at contrasting or
exacerbating pre-existing inequalities);
- Algorithms and innovation processes in healthcare and social care
organizations;
- Algorithms and integration between health and social care services;
- Algorithms and social research (what methodologies can be used for
exploring algorithmic
work in health and social care).
--
Paolo Giardullo, PhD Research Fellow Adjunct Professor of Environmental
Sociology Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education & Applied
Psychology (FISPPA) Section of Sociology - Pa.S.T.I.S. Research
Unit University of Padua via M. Cesarotti, 10/12 35123 PADOVA - ITALY
EASST's Eurograd mailing list
Eurograd (at) lists.easst.net
Unsubscribe or edit subscription options: http://lists.easst.net/listinfo.cgi/eurograd-easst.net
Meet us via https://twitter.com/STSeasst
Report abuses of this list to Eurograd-owner@lists.easst.net
