Methodological toolkit

This document represents the ‘Methodological toolkit’ for the Horizon2020 Project ECHOES; European Colonial Heritage Modalities in Entangled Cities. The ECHOES Project brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and nationalities and entails cases in cityscapes from Asia, Africa and South America and from Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Europe. ECHOES focuses on various forms and levels of engagements with colonial heritage from local street performances to EU political discourse. The overall aim is to investigate decolonial heritage practices outside Europe in former colonized territories with multiple and different histories of colonialisms as well as to look at decolonial practices inside Europe while keeping in mind the very different trajectories of the different European colonial projects. The fact that Europe’s colonial past is simultaneously present as an undeniable heritage in its cities, institutions and international relationships, and also constantly ‘echoed’ back to it from the former colonized ‘outside’ constitutes both the challenge and the promise of the ECHOES project; to look for way in which to engage a decolonized future by seeking inspiration in how the colonial past is managed, transformed and worked on by various artistic, political, heritage or civil actors in cityscapes within and beyond the with European continent

Changing Health Behavior with Social Technology?:A Pilot Test of a Mobile App Designed for Social Support of Physical Activity

Mobile applications targeting people engaged in physical activity have increased. However, while research has identified social support as a key factor for people’s engagement in physical activity, most mobile health (mHealth) applications are designed for individual use. In this paper, we report on a research study exploring opportunities for designing mHealth to facilitate social support around physical activity. A mHealth application was designed, and pilot tested for eight weeks with healthcare professionals (n = 3) and two groups of citizens (n = 20) who were motivated but challenged physically due to various health conditions. Data was collected via online monitoring of the use of the mHealth application during the pilot test and via qualitative interviews with the participants before and after. The results support the idea that designing for social health support is important but so is identifying key challenges related to (i) the facilitation of technology-mediated social health support, especially to a target group that is living with health challenges, and (ii) finding a balance between social and health agendas that bring social support to the foreground for the participants

Equity in digital healthcare – the case of Denmark

As digital healthcare services are expanding in use and purpose in a Danish context so are the functionalities embedded in these, constituting citizens’ access to healthcare services and personal health data. In Denmark, the impact of inequalities in digital healthcare remains largely unexplored, making it crucial to pay close attention to this aspect as the digital transformation of the sector progresses. According to the Danish Health Act (2019), the Danish healthcare system is required to ensure easy and equal access to healthcare, high-quality treatment, coherent patient pathways, freedom of choice, easy access to information, transparency, and short waiting times for every citizen. These are focal law-based requirements influenced by the digitalisation of healthcare. Hence, based on insights from a highly digitalised country, in this case, Denmark, this paper aims to initiate a discussion on inequities in digital healthcare, address current challenges, and consider future directions by elaborating on conceptual, ethical, evidence-informed, and methodological issues linked to inequities in digital healthcare. Specifically, this paper discusses why inequities in digital healthcare in a Danish context need increased attention, how health equity is embedded in Danish legislation and how it can be approached from an ethical perspective. The central focus revolves around the essential principles of empowerment, emancipation, and equity, which are being highlighted to emphasise that the digitalisation of healthcare should actively work towards preventing and avoiding the perpetuation of healthcare inequalities. The paper concludes by discussing future directions for ensuring a more sustainable, robust, and equitable digital healthcare system