Trial lecture
“Discuss the motivation in the development of sociomateriality against alternative perspectives”
Time and place: April 9, 2024 10:15 AM, Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus
Main research findings
New technologies have greatly contributed to the well-being of humankind and particularly so in health care, allowing the treatment of previously incurable diseases. However, integrating technological breakthroughs into medical practice is complex and often slow. Medical procedures depend on interconnected socio-technical ecosystems spanning multiple locations, and decision-making involves collaboration among many stakeholders, including medical professionals, funding bodies, and businesses, as well as the negotiated development of legal frameworks and clinical guidelines. Thus, understanding the integration of new technologies in healthcare requires relational, networked perspectives. The thesis distills the main postulates of relational theories in information systems and organization studies as foregrounding non-duality, network co-construction, and temporal-relational contexts. It argues for a "comprehensive" use of the relational perspective in which these three postulates are used concurrently. It presents the results of a longitudinal five-year case study of implementing a new medical procedure in a Norwegian hospital. The findings show technologies' roles in (re-)shaping medical jurisdictions and disciplinary boundaries between medical professionals. Diverse actors interactively shape new practices in a dynamic, controversial environment, and procedures often develop in a non-sequential temporal order. Finally, the thesis elaborates on how the relational perspective can help address the slow pace of change in healthcare practices.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Panos Constantinides, University of Manchester. UK
- Professor Polyxeni Vasilakopoulou, University of Agder, Norway
- Professor Eric Monteiro, Department of informatics, UIO/ NTNU, Norway
Supervisors
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Professor Ole Hanseth, Department of Informatics, UiO
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Professor Bjørn Erik Mørk, Norwegian Business School, Norway
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Professor Davide Nicolini, University of Warwick, UK
Chair of defence:
Associate professor Ellen Munthe-Kaas
Contact information at Department: Mozhdeh Sheibani Harat