Title of the thesis:
The use of an AI sensor in the practice of end-of-life care for elder people in Norway
Topic for the trial lecture:
How does the idea of the "home as a place to die" inform the way we might design and use new technologies and treat carers in a way that is consistent with our values and the way we would wish to die?
Time for trial lecture: 11:15 – 12:15
Time for public defence: 12:45 – 15:30
Place: Digitally
Chair of defence: Dean Elisabet Ljunggren
Adjudication committee:
- Associate professor James Stewart, University of Edinburg
- Associate professo Gunhild Tøndel, NTNU
- Associate professo Guro Wisth Øydgard, Nord University
Supervisors:
- Main supervisor: Professor Janne Breimo, Nord universitet
- Co-supervisor: Professor Christian Lo, Nord University
- Co-supervisor: Professor Sampsa Hyysalo, Aalto University, Finland
You may request a pdf of the thesis by sending an email to: anneli.m.watterud@nord.no.
Summery of the thesis:
This reseach offers a fine-grained description of the implementation and use of an AIdriven movement sensor with camera and microphone in public services for elder people in Norway. In the context of a demographic imbalance, European states are modifying their eldercare regimes; Norway’s transition from facility-based care to services at home was entangled with its implementation of Active Assisted Living Technologies (AAL). Care is a practice of support that humans need at different stages of life, from childhood to elderhood. Current studies identify the end of life as a period from three to four years before death that can be experienced due to different circumstances, one of them being an advanced age. This research is delimited to endof-life eldercare. The objective of the study isto provide a thorough account of how the implementation and use of an AI sensor prefigured changes to end-of-life care work practices and to contribute to sociological inquiry on the implementation of technology in care services. The study takes an everyday sociological perspective of care; that is to say, it approaches the subject from the standpoint of those who perform it on the ground: the care workers. In order to collect data, I worked with care workers as their assistant for 244 hours of full shifts throughout the mornings, afternoons and nights, and conducted 70 ethnographic interviews. The analysis of the intersection of end-of-life eldercare practices and technology implementation was conducted through ethnographic interpretation, Situational Analysis, and Theodor Schatzki’s social practice theory.
