This article contributes to the growing debate on algorithms in digital health, which has expanded alongside the integration of algorithmic technologies into diverse healthcare practices and contexts. Although much of the existing literature adopts a deterministic perspective, focusing on the impact of algorithms on society, we propose a different approach. Drawing on the concept of algorithmic choreography, we show how humans and algorithmic technologies "gear together" in shared performances. Based on an ethnographic study in a nursing home for people with dementia, we examine a telemonitoring algorithmic system designed to prevent adverse events and how it enters into relations with the humans inhabiting this healthcare organization. The system gives rise to two distinct choreographies: night monitoring, in which staff use it for real-time observation of residents' movements and quantified decision-making, where algorithmically generated indexes support longitudinal assessments of residents' health status. We argue that in both choreographies, humans remain central rather than passive recipients of innovation. Care professionals give or withhold agency from algorithms, sustain their functioning and engage in collective improvisations through which human-nonhuman interactions are continually reshaped.

There are atmospheres that happen in a more or less recurrent way within an organization even if they take a different form at any new occurrence. One example is the affective atmosphere called The Sunset Syndrome that takes place in a nursing home dedicated to people with Alzheimer’s disease. In similar settings, care practices are intertwined with the use of coercion, and the use of coercion affects both the receivers of it and those who exerts it. Containment of the anxieties becomes a force inside an affective atmosphere understood as a field of forces. The article offers an affective ethnography of the multiple forms that the atmosphere takes according to how people, materials, discourses, and knowledges enter into a choreographic movement according to specific orientation. The Sunset Syndrome’s shape varies according to how care, coercion, and containment become entangled in care practices. The contribution that an affective ethnography offers to the study of atmospheres is focused on their affective, material, and organizational dimensions, often misrecognized in organization studies.

This work aims at contributing to the debate around the social representations of ageing, here by considering the theory of “biomedicalisation of ageing”, for which getting older is transformed into a medical problem with specific health risks that can be treated thanks to the help of technoscientific innovations. A considerable body of literature has created and developed this theoretical perspective, mainly through conceptual contributions or with qualitative methods, but different from most research, our paper contains a comparative-quantitative analysis of two large datasets, consisting of all the articles regarding the older population published online on the Guardian (UK) and la Repubblica (Italy). These articles underwent a quantitative analysis based on topic modelling techniques to identify and analyse the relevant topics. In parallel, we developed some synthetic indices to support the analysis of how news about older people is “biomedicalised” in media coverage. First, our analyses show how, during the period under scrutiny (1985-2021), while older adults have been increasingly framed as subjects at risk, the technoscientific solutions typical of the biomedicalisation era (i.e., personalised medicine and devices for self-monitoring vital parameters as well as lifestyles) have become increasingly relevant in the media sphere. Second, the analysed data show how biomedicalisation processes are interwoven with the ongoing social, cultural and economic arrangements (e.g., reduction in welfare state spending and exacerbation of the ageing population). Finally, focusing on the 2020-2021 period, it is observable how during COVID-19 public attention to the health risks of older adults has further increased; at the same time, there has been a diminishing emphasis on technoscientific solutions within the public sphere.

Background/Objectives: The known benefits of sport and exercise for people with dementia (PwD) and their caregivers mean that physical activity could be prioritized over pharmacological treatment. Research suggests that physical activity not only enhances the overall wellbeing of PwD, but also improves the relationships and wellbeing of their caregivers. The text examines the importance of physical activity for PwD and explores whether certain types of exercise, as well as modern tools like information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI), are particularly suitable for this population given their different living environments, such as at home or in institutions. Methods: The study employed a qualitative design, conducting three focus groups (N = 17) in Slovenia with three distinct participant groups: informal caregivers (N = 6), physiotherapists in care homes (N = 7), and people diagnosed with dementia (N = 4). Data collection involved structured focus group discussions guided by key questions on types of exercise, challenges faced, and potential ICT and AI applications. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, means and standard deviations were used to summarize demographic data of respondents. Given the qualitative nature of the focus groups the emphasis was on thematic content analysis to identify common themes and insights supported by descriptive summaries to contextualize the findings. Results: The results suggest that regular physical activity tailored to an individual’s existing lifestyle and abilities can be essential for improving the quality of life of PwD. Although ICT and AI play an important role in promoting and monitoring regular physical activity and a sense of safety, the use of ICT and AI tools are still the exception, not the rule. Key barriers include inadequate awareness of existing solutions, cognitive decline, physical limitations, safety concerns, and limited access to appropriate programs. The study highlights the unused potential of ICT and AI for overcoming these barriers and offers solutions like personalized exercise—which refers to a physical activity program that is tailored to an individual’s specific needs, abilities, preferences, and goals—tracking, adaptive programs, and AI-driven virtual assistants that promote safety and encourage regular physical activity.

BackgroundSupportive Care is a person-centred approach encompassing non-pharmacological interventions targeted towards persons with dementia to contain the effects of their behavioural disorders, improving their quality of life.AimsTo investigate the effects of lockdown restrictions during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic on behavioural symptoms of patients involved in a Supportive Care programme in an Italian nursing home.MethodsAnalysis is based on Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores and related symptoms data collected before (October/November 2019) and after (July 2020) the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions on a non-random sample of 75 patients living in two units of the facility: 38 involved in a Supportive Care programme and 37 receiving standard care (Control). Group performances were compared over time according to univariate statistics and Latent Class Analysis (LCA).ResultsNPI scores and number of reported symptoms in NPI evaluations increased over time among Supportive Care patients with dementia and decreased in the Control group. Differences are statistically significant. LCA resulted in 3-classes and 5-classes specifications in the two time-occasions.DiscussionSupportive Care patients showed a worsening in behavioural and psychological symptoms after the first pandemic wave, as opposed to the elderly not involved in the programme. LCA showed that patients in the two groups differed according to the combinations of NPI symptoms.ConclusionsThe discontinuation of a Supportive Care programme due to COVID-19 restrictions had strong negative effects on nursing home persons with dementia involved in the programme: Supportive Care interventions are important in controlling the psycho-behavioural symptoms associated with dementia.

Objective Early detection of Parkinson's Disease (PD) progression remains a challenge. As remote patient monitoring solutions (RMS) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies emerge as potential aids for PD management, there's a gap in understanding how end users view these technologies. This research explores patient and neurologist perspectives on AI-assisted RMS. Methods Qualitative interviews and focus-groups were conducted with 27 persons with PD (PwPD) and six neurologists from Finland and Italy. The discussions covered traditional disease progression detection and the prospects of integrating AI and RMS. Sessions were recorded, transcribed, and underwent thematic analysis. Results The study involved five individual interviews (four Italian participants and one Finnish) and six focus-groups (four Finnish and two Italian) with PwPD. Additionally, six neurologists (three from each country) were interviewed. Both cohorts voiced frustration with current monitoring methods due to their limited real-time detection capabilities. However, there was enthusiasm for AI-assisted RMS, contingent upon its value addition, user-friendliness, and preservation of the doctor-patient bond. While some PwPD had privacy and trust concerns, the anticipated advantages in symptom regulation seemed to outweigh these apprehensions. Discussion The study reveals a willingness among PwPD and neurologists to integrate RMS and AI into PD management. Widespread adoption requires these technologies to provide tangible clinical benefits, remain user-friendly, and uphold trust within the physician-patient relationship. Conclusion This study offers insights into the potential drivers and barriers for adopting AI-assisted RMS in PD care. Recognizing these factors is pivotal for the successful integration of these digital health tools in PD management.

This paper contributes to challenging common behavioural or cognitive explanations for health and wellbeing outcomes, focussing on social practices through which people, with the help of other subjects, try to improve their health conditions. To renew the debate about health promotion, my work is placed at the intersection between the sociology of health and illness and science and technology studies, adopting the concepts of care infrastructures and health practices that are introduced in the next section. With this goal, my paper draws on a qualitative study concerning a Workplace Health Promotion programme aimed at reducing the risks of Type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases among sedentary workers. The findings illustrate how a care infrastructure in the field of health promotion is designed, put to work, repaired and 'put aside' in relation to two health practices ('doing physical activity' and 'following the Mediterranean diet'). Drawing on the presented case, I show how the change in daily habits in the fields of nutrition and physical activity is a collective effort involving different spheres of life, connecting human and non-human elements and bringing out affective intensities among them.

Workplace health promotion (WHP) are often depicted as an opportunity for pursuing a better and broader well-being condition under the assumption that working environments affect the physical, mental, and social well-being of individuals who spend large proportion of waking hours at work. While most empirical studies provided medical evidence to the effectiveness of WHP programs, scholars question the instrumental purposes of these programs founded on the belief that “healthy workers are better workers”. Little is known, for instance, about the design of WHP programs and their acceptance by workers. Our study addresses this gap, analyzing the co-production of a WHP program in an Italian research institute promoted by the healthcare authority, the local government and the national center for prevention and security in the workplaces. To this aim, we adopt the notion of boundary object investigate how different stakeholders reclaim to take part and being involved in this process, re-shaping their goals and their boundaries and why a WHP program or parts of it may be rejected or re-negotiated by its recipients. Our analysis reveals how each stakeholder contributes to re-shape the WHP program which emerges as the modular product of the composition of each matter of concern. Most notably, the strong rooting in a clinical perspective and the original focus on only workers at risk is gradually flanked by initiatives to involve all employees. Moreover, workers draw a line as for the legitimacy of employers’ intervention in the personal sphere of health promotion, embracing interventions addressing diet and physical activity while rejecting measures targeting smoking and alcohol consumption.

For many years, dementia care has been dominated by the standard medical approach, in which dementia is treated mainly with drugs, such as anti-anxiety, antidepressant and anti-psychotic medications. With the aim of seeking effective treatments for patients with dementia, over the last years, several contributions have criticised the pervasive use of drugs for the management of behavioural and physiological symptoms related to dementia, proposing personalised interventions aimed at supporting patients and their relatives from diagnosis until death. With particular reference to long-term settings, in this work, we aim at understanding the organisational implications of three types of interventions (labelled supportive care interventions - SCIs) that have characterised this shift in dementia care: person-centred, palliative and multi-disciplinary care. Conducted by following the integrative review method, our review underlines how SCIs have controversial consequences on the quality of care, the care-givers' quality of life and cultural backgrounds. After an in-depth analysis of selected papers, we offer some considerations about the implications of SCIs for long-term care organisations and future research directions.

Old age is at the core of complex constellations composed by media discourses, care and mundane activities, and affective and technological practices that involve a wide range of human and non-human actors. While during the last years concepts such as "active" and "successful" ageing have more and more emphasised the individual responsibility of older adults in managing their own health, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic elderly have been increasingly framed as vulnerable subjects. This Crossing Boundaries will explore the different instances assumed by the "old age" as an emerging object by the enactment of discourses and materialities. In doing so, this Crossing Boundaries mobilizes different theoretical perspectives, such as STS, media studies and sociology of health. The authors will explore three main issues: 1) the public discourse about the health status of older people; 2) the collective management of Alzheimer's disease in and outside institutions; 3) the involvement of older adults in designing information and communication technologies.

The relationship between power, technology and organizing is a longstanding theme in organization studies, typically articulated along two polarized positions: a pessimistic and an optimistic one. Both positions assume a deterministic view in which technology "impacts" society and organizations, thus missing the intricate and often ambiguous dynamics that surround power and technology. Accordingly, this Special Issue focuses on the intricacies of power, digital technologies and organizational processes. Presenting the rationale of the papers that compose the Special Issue, we suggest five themes arising when empirically and theoretically approaching these intricacies: 1) digital technologies and power relationships in organizational structure and processes; 2) relationships between technology, power and workers' participation; 3) digital technologies, algorithmic control and power renegotiation; 4) digital technologies, practices of human resources management and the joint design of technology, work, and organization; 5) hyper-industrialization as a critical lens to approach technology, work, and organizing. Taken all together, the papers help overcoming simplifications as well as polarized representations of the relationship between power, digital technologies and organizing.

This article presents reflections resulting from the conference session "Dis-entangling Later Life: Ageing Processes, Innovative Practices and Critical Reflections", organized in the context of the VIII STS Italia Conference. The paper expands the discussions from the session and touches on three topics regarding the multiple relationships between COVID-19, ageing and health, namely: (1) the decline of a hyper-responsibilizing rhetoric in the public sphere over the last decades, along with concepts of active ageing and successful ageing; (2) the reinforcement of the representation of ageing as a process with homogenous effects on population, transforming older adults into a social group characterized by shared frailties and needs; and (3) the growing role of public and third sector institutions in supporting older adults in the use of technology during the COVID-19 outbreak, expanding the network of involved actors. Proposals for future research paths are addressed in the conclusions, encouraging the further analysis of the topics discussed in the conference session.

The paper focuses on the relationships between power and technology in the field of organization studies, shedding light on the conceptual juxtapositions arousing from the debate. It discusses the many concepts of power and the relationship between digital technologies and power. Then it focuses on the role of digital technologies with respect to automation processes and control dynamics and deepens the transformations of jobs and professions in relation to digital technologies' adoption. The contribution calls for overcoming the dualistic nature of debates, so to understand sociality and materiality, power and technology as a form of continuum.

AbstractIn this article, we examine the kinds of control practices that emerge with the introduction of digital technologies, and how these technologies are employed to shape power within workplaces. We present a comparative conceptual review of work practices by contrasting remote work and the use of workplace wearables. We trace forms of power and control that have been enacted with the adoption of these work‐related technologies and associated practices. We find that the prevailing literature focuses on the practices enacted by management in order to control workers and exert power over them, and we propose that a more comprehensive approach be taken. In support of this view, we show how the concept of appropriation emerges from science and technology studies, and we argue that such a concept would be useful for exploring how workers use and incorporate digital technologies into their daily lives, thus reshaping power in organizations.