Smarte hus, sensorer og ny teknologistøttet omsorg - en praxeologisk studie om det norske velferdsteknologiområdet

The research question in this master project is; how can it be that welfare technologies is currently being tested and implemented in municipal home care? The theoretical framework in the thesis is praxeology, which examines social practices. Older users' home was considered welfare technologies primary objective, where this is justified based on demographic changes in society; colloquially referred to as the ‘elderly wave’. One of the main theses in the study questions whether welfare technologies can be regarded as a political crossroad in the elderly care, based on disagreement among scientists on site. Pierre Bourdieu's methodological approach and ‘theoretical tool kit’ has helped me in my search for answers, where also historical, contextual and structural factors have emerged. The praxeologic perspective has been with me in the collecting of data, as well as in the analysis of the material. In the study I have examined how the technology implementation can be said to have a structuring impact on health professionals, particularly with regard to nursing practice and nurses’ position in this subfield. The positions disposition based positionings (in meanings and actions) regarding homecare/municipal home care; has been the study's empirical material. The empirical material was obtained through observational and interview studies of employees in a Norwegian municipality where a test and implementation project of welfare technology takes place. Historical and contemporary sources on welfare technology has also been obtained. The study’s findings display that welfare technologies is a field where many different agents are involved and fight for their interests. It becomes apparent that the nurses are ambiguous in their positionings, and historical struggles for positions with in the field has been identified as relevant. The health professionals seems to fight a battle over whether technology should be implemented, while other agents are more concerned about how this should be organized. In addition, there are struggles between the professionals and the political and economic fields. However, in the political and economic fields, the battle seems to be about what technologies should be used to, not whether such technology is something that will be a focus on the municipal sector in the future