School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2019 Oct;41 Suppl 1:1-15. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12898.
In this editorial introduction, we explore how digital health is being explored at the intersection of sociology of health and science and technology studies (STS). We suggest that socio-material approaches and practice theories provide a shared space within which productive tensions between sociology of health and STS can continue. These tensions emerge around the long-standing challenges of avoiding technological determinism while maintaining a clear focus on the materiality and agency of technologies and recognising enduring sets of relations that emerge in new digital health practices while avoiding social determinism. The papers in this Special Issue explore diverse fields of healthcare (e.g. reproductive health, primary care, diabetes management, mental health) within which heterogenous technologies (e.g. health apps, mobile platforms, smart textiles, time-lapse imaging) are becoming increasingly embedded. By synthesising the main arguments and contributions in each paper, we elaborate on four key dimensions within which digital technologies create ambivalence and (re)configure health practices. First, promissory digital health highlights contradictory virtues within discourses that configure digital health. Second, (re)configuring knowledge outlines ambivalences of navigating new information environments and handling quantified data. Third, (re)configuring connectivity explores the relationships that evolve through digital networks. Fourth, (re)configuring control explores how new forms of power are inscribed and handled within algorithmic decision-making in health. We argue that these dimensions offer fruitful perspectives along which digital health can be explored across a range of technologies and health practices. We conclude by highlighting applications, methods and dimensions of digital health that require further research.
在这篇社论介绍中，我们探讨了数字健康在健康社会学和科学技术研究（STS）的交叉点上是如何被探索的。我们认为，社会物质方法和实践理论为避免健康社会学和 STS 之间的技术决定论的同时，仍然保持对技术的物质性和能动性的清晰关注，提供了一个共同的空间。这些紧张关系出现在长期存在的挑战中，即避免技术决定论，同时保持对技术的物质性和能动性的清晰关注，并认识到在新的数字健康实践中出现的持久关系，同时避免社会决定论。本期特刊中的论文探讨了医疗保健的不同领域（如生殖健康、初级保健、糖尿病管理、心理健康），其中异质技术（如健康应用程序、移动平台、智能纺织品、延时成像）正越来越多地融入其中。通过综合每篇论文的主要论点和贡献，我们详细阐述了数字技术在四个关键维度上创造模棱两可和（重新）配置健康实践的方式。首先，有前途的数字健康突出了配置数字健康的话语中存在的矛盾美德。其次，（重新）配置知识勾勒出了在新的信息环境中导航和处理量化数据的模棱两可之处。第三，（重新）配置连接性探索了通过数字网络发展的关系。第四，（重新）配置控制探讨了在健康领域的算法决策中，新形式的权力是如何被铭刻和处理的。我们认为，这些维度为数字健康提供了有价值的视角，可以在各种技术和健康实践中进行探索。最后，我们强调了需要进一步研究的数字健康的应用、方法和维度。
