Weiner Kate, Will Catherine
Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, UK.
Department of Sociology, University of Sussex, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2018 Feb;40(2):270-282. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12590.
The growing consumer market in health monitoring devices means that technologies that were once the preserve of the clinic are moving into spaces such as homes and workplaces. We consider how one such device, blood pressure monitors, comes to be integrated into everyday life. We pursue the concept of 'care infrastructure', drawing on recent scholarship in STS and medical sociology, to illuminate the work and range of people, things and spaces involved in self-monitoring. Drawing on a UK study involving observations and interviews with 31 people who have used a consumer blood pressure monitor, we apply the concept beyond chronic illness, to practices involving consumer devices - and develop a critical account of its value. We conclude that the care infrastructure concept is useful to highlight the socio-material arrangements involved in self-monitoring, showing that even for ostensibly personal devices, monitoring may be a shared practice that expresses care for self and for others. The concept also helps draw attention to links between different objects and spaces that are integral to the practice, beyond the device alone. Care infrastructure draws attention to the material, but ensures that analytic attention engages with both material and social elements of practice and their connections.
健康监测设备不断增长的消费市场意味着，那些曾经仅存于诊所的技术正走进家庭和工作场所等空间。我们思考像血压监测仪这样的一种设备是如何融入日常生活的。我们借鉴科学技术研究（STS）和医学社会学领域的最新学术成果，探讨“关怀基础设施”这一概念，以阐明自我监测过程中涉及的人员、事物和空间的作用及范围。基于一项在英国开展的研究，该研究对31位使用过消费型血压监测仪的人员进行了观察和访谈，我们将这一概念应用于慢性病以外涉及消费型设备的实践中，并对其价值进行了批判性分析。我们得出结论，关怀基础设施这一概念有助于凸显自我监测中涉及的社会物质安排，表明即使对于表面上属于个人的设备，监测也可能是一种表达对自己和他人关怀的共享行为。这一概念还有助于关注实践中不同物体和空间之间的联系，这些联系不仅仅局限于设备本身，而是实践不可或缺的一部分。关怀基础设施关注物质层面，但确保分析性关注涉及实践的物质和社会要素及其联系。
