Weak Data: The Social Biography of a Measurement Instrument and How It Failed to Ensure Accountability in Home Care. (5th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoeyer, Klaus; Bødker, Malene
• Is Part Of: Medical anthropology quarterly. Volume 34:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 420
• Page End: 437
• Publication Date: 2020-08-05
• Subjects: accountability -- data -- datafication -- health care -- home care; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- Periodicals; Antropología médica -- Publicaciones periódicas; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Ethnomédecine -- Périodiques; Medische antropologie; Anthropologie médicale; Computer network resources; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 306.461
• DOI: 10.1111/maq.12602
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0745-5194

Abstract

Abstract: Contemporary health and social care is saturated by processes of datafication. In many cases, these processes are nested within an ostensibly simple logic of accountability: Define a politically and morally desirable goal, then measure the level of achievement. This logic has come to permeate public health initiatives globally and today it operates in most health care systems in various ways. We explore here a particular instantiation of the logic associated with the introduction of a measurement instrument used in Danish home care. Building on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and analysis of policy documents, we show how the instigated processes of datafication—despite hopeful political claims—erode care levels and disempower older people. We believe that these findings can be of relevance for other settings that subscribe to the same accountability logic and to similar forms of measurement instruments.