O'Donovan, Cian

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Evolving digital infrastructures in UK sheltered housingSome implications for freedoms and capabilitiesPresented at HDCA 2022, Antwerp, 20th September 2022Cian O’Donovan | @cian | c.o’donovan@ucl.ac.ukUCL, Department of Science and Technology Studieswith Ralitsa Hiteva, Kate Simpson and Melanie SmallmanProject: Environmental Impact of Digital Services on Health and Wellbeing in the HomeUKRI grant: EP/V042130/1Project: Environmental Impact of Digital Services on Health and Wellbeing in the HomeUKRI grant: EP/V042130/1Beaufort Court, St. Leondards, UKHow is this useful?(for HDCA colleagues)We want to understand… how to better target, anticipate, assess and evaluate innovation in public welfare and long-term care institutions at the level of infrastructure, systems and digital transformations1. Digital services are not plug and play…2. Capabilities…• Roles, identities, subjectivities and valued beings vs prescriptive doings• E.g. the co-production of independent or vulnerable residents versus focus on technology acceptance, engagement or even exclusion and inclusion• Opportunities for... • Interventions towards convivial, collective and pro-community digital infrastructures• At its most radical: rethinking public utility provision for  housing, e.g. internetConclusionsThe problem:digital transformation in housing schemesResearch questions, problematization and our approachpaper:Evolving digital infrastructures PART 1Why digital infrastructures, not just technologies?• Digital technologies (telehealth, patient portals, digital wards) are often developed in silos and are not fully interoperable with built environment systems• Digital technologies are also often not designed for specific needs and capabilities of staff at housing schemes • limited understanding of the functions and purpose of the systems• on site staff are expected to provide remote assistance and maintenance (e.g. restarting systems, typing in access codes)  • Infrastructures foreground norms and standards of evaluation, regulation and governance / bring specific problems of scale and complexity • Data, cloud services/logics and the allure of integration• [Politics and societal leverage – see keynote!]What the literature tells us materials, practices and meanings• Watson & Shove 2022: infrastructures & practices evolve together, recursively• O’Donovan & Smith 2019: capabilities valued in digital spaces (multi-scalar doings and beings incl. identity)• Oosterlaken et al: ICTs and capabilities• Kullman & Lee: on translation (STS) and resource conversion (CA)What the literature tells us materials, practices and meanings“…more lasting capabilities and freedoms are not the result of unmaking relations between persons and material environments but rather emerge through a careful reordering of those relations”– Kullman & Lee (2012)Kullman, K., & Lee, N. (2012). Liberation from/Liberation within: Examining One Laptop per Child with Amartya Sen and Bruno Latour. In I. Oosterlaken & J. van den Hoven (Eds.), Capability approach, technology and design (pp. 39–55). Springer.Meaningful digital encounters• Meaningful digital encounters: moments of re-ordering during infrastructure building, maintenance, repair and evolution – proximity doesn’t always lead to shared values• Via situational analysis (Clarke 2009)• Mapping distributed action and accomplishments which are produced through the conversion/translation of heterogeneous elementsValentine, G. (2008). Living with difference: Reflections on geographies of encounter. Progress in Human Geography, 32(3), 323–337.Research questions1. How do digital infrastructures reconstitute social and material relations within housing schemes?2. What opportunities do residents and staff have to alter these?3. How can we understand evolving digital infrastructures in terms of capabilities?Encountering digital infrastructures in sheltered housingEvidence from the casepaper:Evolving digital infrastructures PART 2Research situationsRugby~43 residents~37 homesIndependent Living Sheltered housingStratford Upon Avon~155 residents~102 homesExtra Care/ Independent Living Sheltered housingHastings / St. Leonards~100 residents~96 homesIndependent Living Sheltered housingInterviews, focus groups, observation, workshops and trials:  independence, future visions, living with technologye.g. How do we design out wastePositions taken by residentsPositions taken by residentsPositions taken by residents 1. Feeling safer with some technology features 2. Praise for new system 3. Distrust of new system 4. Dissatisfaction with people linked to the system 5. Previously feeling coerced into wellbeing calls 6. Opt to speak to family over housing managers, where possible 7. Feeling left behind technology 8. Low technology confidence [co-production of being older]Disconnection, control and comfortEncountering infrastructures, cultivating capabilitiesThoughts for capability building and designing infrastructure interventionsRQs: Relations / reconfiguring / cultivating capabilitiespaper:Evolving digital infrastructures PART 3Limitations of plug and play logics1. Technologies aren’t plug and play – they are configured locally (Perhaps P&P alludes capability building?!?) 2. Digital is often a synonym for ‘new’. Fails to acknowledge aggregation over waves of digital infrastructuralising. 3. Problem because 1. measures of acceptance, roll-out and scale-up of digital technologies don’t really tell us what we want to know about wellbeing, sustainability etc. 2. Wrong diagnosis when things don’t go rightCo-production of new roles, identities, subjectivities 1. Connection is valued, but does not cultivate capabilities by itself.• Everyone agreed connection is central to the home. But connecting what and how? Connecting with neighbours, and nature is valued. • But when residents encounter tech already connected to services, firms and analyses outside their control they can feel overwhelmed2. Co-production of independence (partial)3. Co-production of vulnerabilities• “I can’t work my Smart TV, how am I ever going to manage this”4. Ongoing work investigating staff subjectivitiesMeaningful digital encountersExperiences that change perceptions and values beyond a single interaction• Notable encounters: during installation, when things go wrong, alarm calls, digital myths• In the absence of meaningful digital encounters, roles and subjectivities formed • E.g. meaning making that is mediated and sustained via networks, systems and platforms• Opportunities to understand; intervene; cultivate capabilitiesBuilding convivial digital infrastructure—potential for design interventions1. Convivial logics for digital design: pairing technologies was a new concept for many residents. 2. …housing association and Appello system can act as platform and gate keeper but needs support. 3. Developing new digital organizational set-ups; digital development programmes; digital wellbeing officers; digital needs assessments; basic digital provision package4. Collective capabilities: many residents need neighboursto help in communal areas…-> Broadband connection in communal areas and individual apartments as BAU5. Whole system approaches – solutions arising from working and coordinating collaboratively across housing, healthcare, long term caresectors1. Digital services are not plug and play…2. Capabilities…• Subjectivities and valued beings vs prescriptive doings• E.g. the co-production of independent or vulnerable residents versus focus on technology acceptance, engagement or even exclusion and inclusion• Next: mapping digital capabilities valued by staff• Opportunities for... • Interventions towards convivial, collective and pro-community digital infrastructures• At its most radical: rethinking public utility provision for  housing, e.g. internetConclusionsThank you, please do get in touch with questions or comments:c.o’donovan@ucl.ac.ukCian O’Donovan | @cianUCL, Department of Science and Technology Studieswith Ralitsa Hiteva, Kate Simpson and Melanie SmallmanProject: Environmental Impact of Digital Services on Health and Wellbeing in the HomeUKRI grant: EP/V042130/1slideskeepfaking.it/hdca2022

Evolving digital infrastructures in UK sheltered housing: 

Some implications for freedoms and capabilities

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10165618/1/ODonovan-HDCA%202022-09-19_FINAL.pdf

Evolving digital infrastructures in UK sheltered housing: Some implications for freedoms and capabilities

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