News

New paper on blood pressure monitoring ‘care infrastructures’

1 March 2018

A new paper, using data from the pilot interviews from our project, has been published in Sociology of Health and Illness. The journal article was written by Kate Weiner and Catherine Will. In it, they argue that the use of self-monitoring devices may be understood as a shared practice that expresses care for self and for others. The entire paper is available to read open access.

Abstract

The growing consumer market in health monitoring devices means that technologies that were once the preserve of the clinic are moving into spaces such as homes and workplaces. We consider how one such device, blood pressure monitors, comes to be integrated into everyday life. We pursue the concept of ‘care infrastructure’, drawing on recent scholarship in STS and medical sociology, to illuminate the work and range of people, things and spaces involved in self-monitoring.

Drawing on a UK study involving observations and interviews with 31 people who have used a consumer blood pressure monitor, we apply the concept beyond chronic illness, to practices involving consumer devices – and develop a critical account of its value.

We conclude that the care infrastructure concept is useful to highlight the socio-material arrangements involved in self-monitoring, showing that even for ostensibly personal devices, monitoring may be a shared practice that expresses care for self and for others.

The concept also helps draw attention to links between different objects and spaces that are integral to the practice, beyond the device alone. Care infrastructure draws attention to the material, but ensures that analytic attention engages with both material and social elements of practice and their connections.