CareNet
- Main investigator:
- Rodríguez Giralt, Israel
- Area:
- Social sciences
- Area of specialization:
- Digital health, Network society, City and Community
- Affiliation center:
- Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3)
- UNESCO codes:
- 630707, 631011, 611403
- Collaborates with:
- e-Health Center
- ODS:
- Public engagement
- Participatory approaches
- care work
- digital technologies
- network society
- sociology
- mental health
- Disaster Risk Reduction
- social psychology
- social perspective and inclusion
- social movements
- collaborative methodologies
- feminism
- disability studies
- aging
- Biopolitics & Governance
- social anthropology
The interconnected nature of environmental and climatic crises and those of welfare systems means that care (or the lack of care) is a key issue, one that is currently ignored by technological societies. CareNet focuses on this issue and critically explores how care can be transformed and what would be the consequences. We examine how technological innovations and expert knowledge reshape care, the impact on carers and those cared for, and emerging, community-based ways of rethinking crises and forms of care.
We are interested in developing interdisciplinary training in social studies of science and technology, social psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and social education. We also take an open, blended approach to exploring methodology, with a particular interest in qualitative and participative methodologies.
Care infrastructures
We are interested in the material aspects of care: how digital, architectural and urban infrastructures and everyday objects affect, redistribute and redefine care and support relationships. We also examine how these material aspects are appropriated and given new meanings by caregivers and recipients, and how they affect the distribution of work and responsibilities, and what we understand as good or poor care.
Activism related to care
We examine community care and support initiatives from an intersectional perspective. We want to understand how people who receive care (people with functional diversity, the mentally ill, elderly people, sufferers of chronic disorders and those at the end of life), as well as their carers, turn care and their own situation into a political issue. We study how these groups, communities and networks experiment with new models and ideas of care and, at the same time, make visible the limitations, discrimination and violence involved in more conventional models.
Care and disasters
From a participative and inclusive perspective, we study the role of knowledge and technology in transforming care and support in emergencies, crises and disasters. We are interested in the role of care and support, especially that provided via digital infrastructures, for tackling crises and recovering from them. We also study and promote more integrated and inclusive ways to manage and reduce risk in crises and disasters.
Care of non-humans
CareNet is also interested in the non-humans with which we co-exist (animals, plants, objects, etc.). We use philosophy, the social studies of science and technology and design to reveal the interdependent nature of our relationships with things other than people, for example in the maintenance and repair of objects and technologies, our relationship with animals and plants, and how they help us think ethically and devise policies for tackling the climate, environmental and social crises we are experiencing.
