Caring Futures: Developing Care Ethics for Technology-Mediated Care Practices

The research project Caring Futures: Developing Care Ethics for Technology-Mediated Care Practices will further develop care ethics in an increasingly technological health and welfare sector.

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Facts
Project manager

Professor Ellen Ramvi

Project period

2020 - 2024

Funding

The Research Council of Norway

Budget

NOK 20 million

Researchers will ensure the quality of care in a future with increasing use of technology-mediated care practices.

The world’s population is ageing. Older persons are dramatically increasing in number, with a greater disease burden in society. Policymakers in public welfare are concerned with the emergence of a corresponding resource deficit.

Increased efficiency and innovation are often presented as solutions to these new demands. The development and use of new technology are central aspects of these solutions. Proper use of new technology should facilitate care delivery without compromising care ethics in the relationship between users and professionals. However, the evidence on the ethical implications of technological innovation in current technology-mediated care practices is scarce. 

Identification of knowledge gaps in current care ethics

We have identified a discrepancy between society’s drive for new technology that is care-ethically ignorant – and an absence of technology-awareness within care ethical theory. The research project addresses this knowledge-deficit to secure quality care in a future with increasingly technology-mediated caring practices.

The project revisits care ethics in practice- and experience-near contexts, at a time of changing health, care, and welfare policies, services, and practices. Our principal research question is: how can technology-mediated care practices become care-ethically sound – and, correspondingly, how can care ethics become more technology-aware? 

Ensure quality of care in caring futures

This project benefits users in primary and specialist healthcare, welfare services, and society as a whole. The project safeguards that increasing the use of new technology in care corresponds with quality in care for users and professionals and its implications for practice, policy, and education. We will create a new care ethics paradigm to inform and ensure the quality of care in caring futures.

The project consists of four work-packages:

  1. Digital assessment templates in the child welfare services (WP Lead Ida Bruheim Jensen, Institute for social work, Faculty of Social Sciences, UiS)
  2. Professionals’ ideals and sense of self in technology-mediated care practices (WP Lead Ellen Ramvi, Department of care and ethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiS)
  3. The impact of robots and other caregiving techno-bodies on agency and quality of care (WP Lead Ingvil Hellstrand, Department of care and ethics, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiS)
  4. Management, design, and implementation of technology in care practices (WP Lead Brita Gjerstad, Institute for social work, Faculty of Social Sciences, UiS)

The project has been developed in collaboration between the research group Professional Relations in health and welfare and the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Stavanger.

News

The Caring Futures project on TV2 News

Researchers from “Caring Futures: Developing Care Ethics for Technology-Mediated Care Practices” were interviewed and qu...

Divergent Approaches to the Future of the Health Sector

The Caring Futures research project invited five regional participants to a panel discussion at Sølvberget Library and C...

Bringing together stakeholders in care technology

In the end of September, Health Campus Stavanger, in collaboration with the Caring Futures research project invited rese...

Discussing the relationality between people and technology

This is a theme of interest to both the author Cathrine Knudsen and the artist Kari Telstad Sundet. The event, Science F...

A grand opening

After a long and close collaboration, Ingvil Hellstrand (UiS) and curator Hege Tapio were able to deliver their opening ...

Research meets art in new exhibition

The CARING FUTURES ART EXHIBITION takes place at Galleri Sølvberget 17 September –18 December 2022. The exhibition raise...

Activities

Researchers at the University of Stavanger

Professor i sykepleierfag
51834179
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Førsteamanuensis i barnevern
51831690
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Social Studies
Førsteamanuensis i tverrfaglig kjønnsforskning
51831543
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Førsteamanuensis i sosialt arbeid
51832799
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Social Studies
Stipendiat i profesjonelle relasjoner knyttet til medisinsk satsning
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Førstelektor i sykepleie
51831338
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Postdoktor i profesjonelle relasjoner
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Professor II i bibelvitenskap
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Professor i humanistisk forsking og psykososiale studier
Faculty of Health Sciences
Department of Caring and Ethics
Førsteamanuensis i sosialt arbeid
51831521
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Social Studies
Professor for Nettverk for velferdsforskning
51834237
Faculty of Social Sciences