The automation of communication in care
PhD project of Sara Skadelly
The public discourse on solutions to the “crisis” of demographic ageing is dominated by imaginaries about the automation of communication in health and social care. New and frontier communicative AI systems, such as ambient scribing products, medical companions, voice biomarker technologies, and “proactive” care companions, are rapidly emerging and becoming increasingly present in these contexts.
In her dissertation project, Sara Skardelly addresses how these shifts, along with imaginaries of communicative AI systems, are transforming the landscape of care. Central to her research is the question of what futures regarding the automation of communication in care are being imagined, anticipated, resisted, or acted upon. Drawing on her academic background in Sociology and Computational Social Systems, Sara employs a multi-method approach that combines computational, participatory, and speculative methods to explore this question.
The contribution of her dissertation will be twofold: First, it investigates anticipated futures of the automation of care; second, it considers the ways in which different methods allow for and co-create different engagements with these futures. Building on this, the central aim of her research is to critically challenge tech industry driven visions regarding the automation of communication in care by using creative methods to explore alternative visions.
Contact
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp
ZeMKI, Center for Media, Communication and Information Research
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Assistent Mrs. Schober: +49 421 218-67603
E-mail: andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de
