This article seeks to advance the understanding of how human and material agency enmesh in human-robotic workplaces. By means of a qualitative study, the practical use of robots is investigated within two organisations for medical rehabilitation. The theoretical framework combines Andrew Pickering’s ‘dance of agency’ with a process-oriented view of technology as technical rationality. It shows how resistances and accommodations are enacted by both humans and nonhumans as analytical loci of the dance of agency, and it explains how the experimental activities that are concerned with technology adoption and use are emergently fixed in formal or informal rules of coordination of action – the ‘choreographies of care’. By extending the processual orientation of Pickering’s ‘dance of agency’, and by further elaborating on the organisational implications of technological change within it, the article increases understanding of how the transformation of material agency may enact processes of change in the organisational culture.

Gasparre, A., Tirabeni, L. (2024). Choreographies of Care: A Dance of Human and Material Agency in Rehabilitation Work with Robots. WORK EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIETY, 38(2), 483-504 [10.1177/09500170221144396].

Choreographies of Care: A Dance of Human and Material Agency in Rehabilitation Work with Robots

Tirabeni, L
2024

Abstract

This article seeks to advance the understanding of how human and material agency enmesh in human-robotic workplaces. By means of a qualitative study, the practical use of robots is investigated within two organisations for medical rehabilitation. The theoretical framework combines Andrew Pickering’s ‘dance of agency’ with a process-oriented view of technology as technical rationality. It shows how resistances and accommodations are enacted by both humans and nonhumans as analytical loci of the dance of agency, and it explains how the experimental activities that are concerned with technology adoption and use are emergently fixed in formal or informal rules of coordination of action – the ‘choreographies of care’. By extending the processual orientation of Pickering’s ‘dance of agency’, and by further elaborating on the organisational implications of technological change within it, the article increases understanding of how the transformation of material agency may enact processes of change in the organisational culture.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
dance of agency; organising; process; rehabilitation; robots; technology; therapist; work;
English
5-mar-2023
2024
38
2
483
504
reserved
Gasparre, A., Tirabeni, L. (2024). Choreographies of Care: A Dance of Human and Material Agency in Rehabilitation Work with Robots. WORK EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIETY, 38(2), 483-504 [10.1177/09500170221144396].
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Gasparre-2024-Work, Employment and Society-VoR.pdf

Solo gestori archivio

Descrizione: Pdf editoriale_wes 2024
Tipologia di allegato: Publisher’s Version (Version of Record, VoR)
Licenza: Tutti i diritti riservati
Dimensione 352.43 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
352.43 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/412716
Citazioni
  • Scopus 1
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
Social impact