Dismembering organisation: The coordination of algorithmic work in healthcare

Algorithms are increasingly being adopted in healthcare settings, promising increased safety, productivity and efficiency. The growing sociological literature on algorithms in healthcare shares an assumption that algorithms are introduced to ‘support’ decisions within an interactive order that is predominantly human-oriented. We present a different argument, calling attention to the manner in which organisations can end up introducing a non-negotiable disjuncture between human initiated care work and work that supports algorithms, which we call algorithmic work. Drawing on an ethnographic study, we describe how two hospitals in England implemented an Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) algorithm and we analyse ‘interruptions’ to the algorithm’s expected performance. When the coordination of algorithmic work occludes care work, we find a ‘dismembered’ organisation that is algorithmically-oriented rather than human-oriented. In our discussion, we examine the consequences of coordinating human and non-human work in each hospital and conclude by urging sociologists of organisation to attend to the importance of the formal in algorithmic work. As the use of algorithms becomes widespread, our analysis provides insight into how organisations outside of healthcare can also end up severing tasks from human experience when algorithmic automation is introduced

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

Watchers, Watched, and Watching in the Digital Age: Reconceptualization of it Monitoring as Complex Action Nets

Despite increasing studies of information technology (IT) monitoring, our understanding of how IT-mediates relations between the watcher and watched remains limited in two areas. First, either traditional actor-centric frameworks assuming predefined watcher-watched relationships (e.g., panopticon or synopticon) are adopted or monitoring actors are removed to focus on data flows (e.g., dataveillance, assemblages, panspectron). Second, IT monitoring research predominantly assumes IT artifacts to be stable, bounded, designed objects, with prescribed uses which provides an oversimplified view of actor relationships. To redress these limitations, a conceptual framework of veillance applicable to a variety of possible IT or non-IT-mediated relationships between watcher and watched is developed. Using the framework, we conduct a conceptual review of the literature, identifying IT-enabled monitoring and transformations of actors, goals, mechanisms and foci and develop an action net model of IT veillance where IT artifacts are theorized as equivocal, distributable and open for diverse use, open to edits and contributions by unbounded sets of heterogenous actors characterized by diverse goals and capabilities. The action net of IT veillance is defined as a flexible decentralized interconnected web shaped by multidirectional watcher-watched relationships, enabling multiple dynamic goals and foci. Cumulative contributions by heterogenous participants organize and manipulate the net, having an impact through influencing dispositions, visibilities and the inclusion/exclusion of self and others. The model makes three important theoretical contributions to our understanding of IT monitoring of watchers and watched and their relationships. We discuss implications and avenues for future studies on IT veillance

Emotions and mindlines : a palliative care perspective

This thesis explores the relationship between emotion and mindlines in palliative care. This contributes to the processual turn in organisational studies by using Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) notion of the assemblage to illuminate the processual nature of knowledge translation in palliative care. The processual perspective of organisational theory clarifies the mutual shaping between the ‘material’ and the ‘social’ when considering how emotion affects knowledge and practice. An emerging paradigm of evidence-based practice privileges the socially-constituted nature of knowledge, predicated on interaction and subjectively experienced by individuals. This follows the contention that clinicians do not consistently consult explicit forms of evidence, often in the form of clinical practice guidelines, to inform their practice. Gabbay and le May’s (2004) concept of mindlines attends to this paradigmatic shift. The concept focuses on collectively-reinforced, internalised tacit guidelines informed largely by clinician interactions with networks of trusted sources. The importance of mindlines in palliative care is evident in extant literature as it accounts for the translation of tenuous and fluid practices that are vital in end-of-life care. However, scholars are yet to elucidate the ways emotions affect the development and shaping of mindlines. This study employed a 12-month ethnography within a public community health centre that offered palliative care to patients living at home. I collected qualitative data while shadowing and observing nurses as they delivered, planned, and/or discussed palliative care (and related matters), focusing specifically on critical incidents. This thesis contributes to organisational scholarship by applying the assemblage to describe the observable social organisational forms, and the forces of stabilisation and transformation in health organisations. The findings suggest greater attention needs to be given to emotion in the context of knowledge translation by researchers, policymakers, managers, and practitioners by accounting for emotions within explicit assemblages of practice and allowing for interpretative, flexible, and relative ideas of care within emotional contexts. This study provides a conceptual and methodological foundation for further study on mindlines as assemblages, which should be taken up by scholars working within the broad field of knowledge translation. For managers and clinicians, this study suggests greater opportunities should be provided to clinicians to reflectively and reflexively examine how they are moved by patients, carers, colleagues, and managers. In concert with extant research, this study underscores the significance of a model of care that enables transdisciplinary communication, or a globalisation of specialisations and disciplines

An Investigation of the Communal and Individual Resilience of Immigrant Women in New Zealand

Some immigrant women face triple discrimination due to their, gender, ethnicity and immigrant status. The voices of immigrant women are absent from literature on immigration, furthermore the experience of immigrant women are omitted as prominent literature largely presents the male immigration experience. In addition, immigrant women have been pathologised as much of the psychological literature views them through a deficit perspective, affirming that immigrant women are at risk of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. This research adopts a strengths perspective in order to investigate resilience of immigrant women in New Zealand. This research explores the communal and individual resilience of immigrant women using a feminist qualitative framework. The women were interviewed by means of semi-structured, in depth interviews and the data was analysed by means of thematic analysis in order to report the experiences, meanings and realities of immigrant women’s lives. The analysis revealed that collective roles such as the role of mother, “co-madre”, the benevolent woman, the breadwinner and the role of spirituality and religious beliefs contributed to the resilience of immigrant women. It was also found that individual constructs such as individual spirituality, the emergence into a contemporary paradigm that allowed women to break free from traditional life, as well as the establishment of identities of independence and empowerment aided women’s resilience. The findings highlighted the complex and contradictory nature of immigrant women’s stories presenting a challenge to the pathology discourse of immigrant women evident in the literature and within society

Methods of Domination: Towards a Theory of Domestic Colonialism in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner

While the canon of post-colonial literature has been heavily researched, little scholarship can be found connecting post-colonial theory to instances of colonial tropes within autonomous nations, an event which may be described as “domestic colonialism.” This thesis will examine Khaled Hosseini’s work, The Kite Runner (2003), as a modern work of post-colonial literature, as it reveals the methods of domination present in 20th century Afghanistan. I will evaluate the text based on the definitions of traditional settler colonialism and anthropoligal classifications of intergroup domination in order to highlight the narrative of domestic colonialism that is present within the text. Through evaluating Hassan’s role as a subjugated character within the work, including the methods through which his subjugated status is maintained, I assert that The Kite Runner is an allegorical text that warns against social hierarchies and illustrates domestic colonialism within Afghanistan

Entrepreneurial Intentions: A process perspective

Entrepreneurship research heavily populates many of the leading business and management journals of contemporary times. It´s expansive utility however is not bound by any one particular area, evidenced by the prominence of coverage in a wide-array of multi-disciplinary domains spanning from psychology and sociology to medicine and politics. Attention is fueled by a commonly held belief that multi-faceted complex issues such as, market, economic and social dynamism can all be addressed through individuals both thinking and acting entrepreneurially. It is by means of entrepreneurship that plausible and effective solutions can be uncovered towards economic necessities whilst concomitantly at a broader level developing societies, instigating social change and combating poverty. The entrepreneurship process is considered to begin upon the articulation of an intention. As such, entrepreneurial intentions (EI), as a cognitive construct imparting attention towards, and prediction of, engagement in future behaviours based upon individually held beliefs and desires, represent an important pre-condition that can act as a catalyst to the emergence, or lack thereof, of entrepreneurial behaviour. The area is one that is coming under increasing pressure to prove its worth beyond parsimonious causative models that can predict a portion of variance but concomitantly leave large amounts unaccounted for, largely due to its failure to take into consideration the true dynamism of open systems. To abridge this shortcoming, the aim of the current thesis is to increase and progress our understanding of EI embedded within a processual perspective taking time as a key variable. The key research question that follows is: How (and if) do EIs change over time? Answer to this is achieved through the presentation of three inter-related scientific research articles through a mixed-method approach, namely, a conceptual contribution systematically analysing the current state-of-art in EI scholarship (Paper 1), a qualitative case study investigating intentional transitions throughout the entrepreneurial process (Paper 2), and finally a quantitative investigation tracking changes in intentional stability longitudinally over time (Paper 3)

Theorizing #Girlboss Culture: Mediated Neoliberal Feminisms from Influencers to Multi-level Marketing Schemes

I define girlboss feminism as emergent, mediated formations of neoliberal feminism that equate feminist empowerment with financial success, market competition, individualized work-life balance, and curated digital and physical presences driven by self-monetization. I look toward how the mediation of girlboss feminism utilizes branded and affective engagements with representational politics, discourses of authenticity and rebellion, as well as meritocratic aspiration to promote cultural interest in conceptualizing feminism in ways that are divorced from collective, intersectional struggle. I question the stakes involved in reducing feminist interrogations and commitments to discourses of representation, visibility, and meritocracy. I argue that while girlboss feminism may facilitate individual opportunities for stability and advancement under neoliberal constraints, the proliferation of girlboss feminism as an emergent and mediated thread of neoliberal feminism plays a vital role in perpetuating the severe inequalities required to sustain racial capitalism as an oppressive political-economic and socio-cultural framework. I look to three key spaces: wellness culture, self-help coaching, and multi-level marketing to understand how feminism and racial capitalism grow intertwined via mediated formations of girlboss culture. In charting these formations, I initiate conversations that investigate the nuances and complications of feminist movement work under racial capitalism. I hope that identifying these emergent threads of neoliberal feminism provides insight on how intersectional and liberatory modes of collective struggle might remain more nimble, and generate more political power, than incarnations of feminism that reinforce an oppressive status quo

Prescient custodians: biocultural ecological economics and restorative governance of the Wet Tropics

Ellie Bock explored conceptualisations of ecological economics, biocultural concepts and governance, investigating Indigenous Protected Areas intersecting with the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area and its buffer. Her study found evidence of the presence and emergence of biocultural ecological economies in the Wet Tropics bioregion, with implications for restorative governance policy