Maria Arnelid

My research explores questions of work, technology and the right to care in a changing welfare state. My PhD thesis focuses on the development and implementation of welfare technology for elder care. I am interested in how welfare technology becomes connected to concerns about elder care provision and particular ideals of care in sociotechnical imaginaries. I have studied the development and implementation of welfare technology in two contexts: using qualitative, semi-structured interviews with municipal decision-makers and through an ethnographic study of the development of a conversation partner robot in robotics research. I ask which imaginaries inform the decision-making around welfare technology, how they are materialized, and what it says about the relationship between imaginaries and the organizations and technologies they involve. In addition, I ask how ideals and practices of care and care work are renegotiated through the development and implementation of welfare technology.