Exploring socio-technical relations : perceptions of Saskatoon Transit’s go-pass smartcard and electronic fare system

It is essential to consider what new technologies mean to the people who use them and the ways in which they are experienced and used. In the context of public transit services in Saskatoon, understanding what the recent changes from a manual to an electronic/automated system means to users and the broader community is critically important to the overall assessment of the service. Investigating users’ lived experiences and interpretations of technical artifacts is valuable to understanding socio-technical relations or the embodied interactions of humans and machines as “technologies-in-practice.” Research into socio-technical relations has primarily focused on large scale technological systems and expert practices while less attention has been paid to “seemingly mundane” technologies or technical artifacts routinely used in everyday life. At the same time, this preoccupation has overshadowed or downplayed the importance of exploring users’ experiences and interpretations of technologies. The goal of this research is to contribute to the sociological understanding of mundane technologies-in-practice and socio-technical relations more broadly. In order to gain insight into this relationship, this thesis focuses on bus riders’ (users) and the community’s perceptions of the Go-Pass smartcard and electronic fare system used by the public transit service in Saskatoon. The perspectives of Go-Pass users and community stakeholders (n=15) were investigated using qualitative semi-structured interviews to gain deeper understanding into the complex relationship between users and technologies. Drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and the sociology of technology literature, I propose that a sociomaterial theoretical perspective following a mutual shaping framework offers insight into socio-technical relations. Both critical and feminist technology studies literature has been helpful for developing an understanding of the wider social and political contexts of technical use which underscores this study. In particular, the conceptual insights of “socio-technical assemblages” (Suchman, 2007) and “intra-action” (Barad, 2003) have been helpful tools for exploring agency, subjectivity and power which is key to uncovering the intricacies of socio-technical relations and human-machine interaction. The four main themes emerging from this study were: 1) shifting human-machine roles and relationships; 2) the socio-technical construction of the bus rider; 3) configuring users’ and technologies; and 4) structural issues and social justice implications of technologies-in-practice. The findings demonstrate that the use of this new system is mutually co-constructed by both social and technical factors whereby both the users and the technology inform perceptions and use. There was also the unexpected connection between users’ everyday situated uses, experiences and interpretations of the Go-Pass technologies to wider social-political contexts. There were a number of issues raised in relation to the implementation of the Go-Pass system which had negative effects or unintended social and technical consequences particularly for those most marginalized economically. At the same time, there were important benefits and positive effects on riders’ quality of life and use of the service. Finally, participants’ perspectives have contributed to understanding what the Go-Pass technologies mean to them, the ways in which they are used in practice and the ways in which the mixing of people and seemingly mundane technologies shape relations in everyday settings

Mutual Shaping of Tele-Healthcare Practice: Exploring Community Perspectives on Telehealth Technologies in Northern and Indigenous Contexts

In Canada, northern and Indigenous communities face well documented challenges to accessing healthcare services prompting the urgent need to adopt alternative and innovative solutions to overcome barriers of limited access due to geographic distance, physician shortages, limited resources, and high cost of service delivery. Telehealth – the means of delivering health care services and information across distance – promises to augment services to address some of these barriers and has been increasingly relied upon to bridge healthcare service gaps. Despite the promise of telehealth, notable utilization barriers and structural constraints remain that challenge long-term sustainability. Little is known about how well these technologies work from community telehealth users’ perspectives. Current work in the area has tended to focus on the increased efficiency and cost effectiveness of telehealth in facilitating healthcare services, with less focus on users’ perspectives obscuring the important roles played by users and technologies. In sum, more work needs to be done to present a complete picture of users’ experiences and community needs – a gap this dissertation aims to tackle. In doing so, this research captures a snapshot of community perspectives from four Northern Saskatchewan communities, drawing attention to users’ experiences in relation to the social and technical factors shaping telehealth use. Working in partnership with the communities of Hatchet Lake Denesuline First Nation, the Northern Villages of Île-à-la-Crosse and Pinehouse Lake, and the Town of La Ronge, and external stakeholders/knowledge users working directly with these communities, this work resulted in valuable insights into the user-technology interface. Emerging from community concerns with accessing healthcare services and education/training, the goal of this project was to better understand strengths and barriers for telehealth use. Methodologically, the personal accounts and lived experiences of telehealth users were explored using qualitative methods grounded in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and decolonizing methodologies utilizing Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) that is drawn from interpretive-constructivist epistemological frameworks. In-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews/focus groups with 24 telehealth users, field notes and general observations provided the basis for data collection, and NVivo 12 was used to organize, iteratively code and analyze community insights. Thematic analysis and socio-technical mapping explored themes across community contexts and provided understanding of the interrelationship of shared and unique insights whereby community telehealth users’ voices guided interpretations. This dissertation highlights the importance of community collaborations and identifies the strengths and barriers for utilizing telehealth within northern and Indigenous contexts. Using theoretical frameworks drawn from Science and Technology Studies (STS), this dissertation makes the argument that users and technologies play significant roles in shaping tele-healthcare practice – a mutually co-constitutive relationship embedded within larger socio-structural systems that pose varying constraints. Analysis revealed that users and technologies mutually shape tele-healthcare practices and care experiences – i.e. technologies shape patients’ and local/remote providers’ use of the system in enabling/constraining ways and users shape technologies through reconfiguration or “tinkering”. A mutual shaping approach following the relational/performative view of socio-technical agency serves as a pathway for examining socio-cultural factors shaping how technologies are designed, implemented, and used, and alternatively how technologies shape practice and meanings of socio-technical spaces. Further, it is argued that understanding the context in which telehealth technologies are situated and experienced will be increasingly critical as technological systems play greater roles in service delivery

Mutual Shaping of Telehealthcare in Northern Saskatchewan Community Experiences of the Socio-Technical and Spatial Dimensions of Care

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), CGS Doctoral ScholarshipPeer Reviewed: Telehealth is offered as a technological solution for challenges with accessing care across Canada’s more remote communities. Telehealth technologies can bridge healthcare access gaps by connecting patients and providers; however, there are notable utilization and structural constraints that potentially challenge long-term sustainability. This article contributes a snapshot of community perspectives and experiences from Northern Saskatchewan on the use of telehealth technologies. Specifically, this article locates the strengths and barriers for telehealth use within northern and remote Indigenous community contexts and draws attention to the importance of community collaborations and place-based considerations. Drawing on theoretical insights from science and technology studies (STS), it is argued that understanding the social and spatial contexts in which telehealth is experienced is critical, especially as technologies continue to play an important role in delivering healthcare. The analysis reveals how users and technologies, along with their mediated environments and situated contexts, mutually shape telehealthcare practice and experiences. In the context of this study, a mutual shaping approach provides insight into the factors shaping technology use—it uncovers how socio-spatial and human factors (users) shape technology design, implementation, and utilization, and simultaneously, how technologies shape healthcare practices and experiences associated with telehealth and the socio-technical space of the clinic

Disruptive Technologies in the Agri-food Sector: A Knowledge Synthesis

The agri-food sector in Canada is entering an “age of disruption” where the rapid expansion of technology, like IoT, genetic advancements, and robotics, has potential to fundamentally reshape the futureof work and the development of rural communities across Canada. This presentation reports on the firstphase of a multi- phased project that assesses the impacts of disruptive technologies in the agri-food sector, including the scope of technologies that could disrupt traditional production practices and the future of work. An overview of the project and the findings from our initial research and knowledgesynthesis is presented along with the planned future phases and next steps. Using technology assessment,key informant interviews and comparative case studies, this research aims to identify disruptive technologies and companies, assess their social and spatial implications, and explore how regional stakeholders are responding to these impacts. This research aims to assist local and provincial policymakers in designing and assessing new policies and programs to respond to the impacts of disruptive technologies in the agri-food sector

The Case for Using an Intergenerational Multi-Methods Approach in Community-Based Research

Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) is used in a variety of disciplines, including community development. However, intergenerational CBPAR research, particularly when using visual methods, has been uncommon in fields outside of those in the health domain. Given the success with which some health-related studies with vulnerable youth and adults from disadvantaged regions have applied this kind of research, we conducted a study using a similar approach on entrepreneurship and social and economic capacity building in a rural and remote region. Our CBPAR intergenerational multi-methods research project involved youth, adults, seniors, Elders (Indigenous spiritual leaders), and academic researchers as investigative co-leaders seeking findings useful for changing inequitable systems and practices. With these research partners, we employed a carefully selected set of qualitative data collection methods, including a variety of visual methods, designed to produce robust and actionable findings and knowledge mobilization opportunities. Our research design provided a powerful way to triangulate data while engaging with the broader community to co-produce knowledge across generations. One way we did this was through Indigenous language videos, featuring community members of all ages describing their perspectives on social and economic development in their communities. In this article, we describe how and why our intergenerational multi-methods approach helped us verify our data and enabled our partner communities to leverage the findings to enhance local wellbeing. In doing so, we develop the case for using intergenerational multi-methods approaches with visual method elements in business and other disciplines in which these methods are not often used

<p>Rural pandemic preparedness: the risk, resilience and response required of primary healthcare</p>

Pandemic situations present enormous risks to essential rural primary healthcare (PHC) teams and the communities they serve. Yet, the pandemic policy development for rural contexts remains poorly defined. This article draws on reflections of the rural PHC response during the COVID-19 pandemic around three elements: risk, resilience, and response. Rural communities have nuanced risks related to their mobility and interaction patterns coupled with heightened population needs, socio-economic disadvantage, and access and health service infrastructure challenges. This requires specific risk assessment and communication which addresses the local context. Pandemic resilience relies on qualified and stable PHC teams using flexible responses and resources to enable streams of pandemic-related healthcare alongside ongoing primary healthcare. This depends on problem solving within limited resources and using networks and collaborations to enable healthcare for populations spread over large geographic catchments. PHC teams must secure systems for patient retrieval and managing equipment and resources including providing for situations where supply chains may fail and staff need rest. Response consists of rural PHC teams adopting new preventative clinics, screening and ambulatory models to protect health workers from exposure whilst maximizing population screening and continuity of healthcare for vulnerable groups. Innovative models that emerge during pandemics, including telehealth clinics, may bear specific evaluation for informing ongoing rural health system capabilities and patient access. It is imperative that mainstream pandemic policies recognize the nuance of rural settings and address resourcing and support strategies to each level of rural risk, resilience, and response for a strong health system ready for surge events