Enchanting, Evoking, and Affecting: The Invisible Work of Technology Implementation in Homecare1

Abstract

New technologies are implemented in health care with the promises of replacing care work, but implementing technology into care also requires a lot of work. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish homecare unit, this paper explores a phenomenon increasingly pervading the work of health care personnel in the Nordic countries and other welfare states around the world; the implementation of technology in health and elder care. The paper asks what work is involved in making new technologies enter health and elder care. Drawing on STS research on technology implementation, the paper analyses the invisible work of technology implementation, a complex process that involves skilled affective, symbolic, and evocative practices such as enchanting, affecting, and evoking certain imaginaries and beliefs. What is being implemented along these processes, the paper argues is not only technology, but also new municipal and home care workers reconfigured as ‘implementation agents', and ‘digital older citizens'.