Toward Bricolage in Welfare Technology Use: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Caregivers’ Responses to Social Alarms in Swedish and Chinese Nursing HomesShow others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Cross-Cultural Design - 17th International Conference, CCD 2025, Held as Part of the 27th HCI International Conference, HCII 2025, Proceedings, Springer Nature , 2025, p. 3-15Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
With the increasing integration of welfare technology in elder care, understanding its use across diverse cultural contexts is essential to foster inclusive design. This study examines how caregivers in Swedish and Chinese nursing homes engage with social alarm systems, a key welfare technology, to align with culturally specific caregiving values and practices. Using the concept of bricolage, the research explores how caregivers modify these systems to balance organizational demands with individual and cultural needs. The study employs a cross-cultural comparison of caregiving practices, focusing on how caregivers personalize social alarms to align with relational, moral, and practical caregiving dimensions. Findings reveal that Swedish caregivers adapt social alarms to support resident autonomy and independence, whereas Chinese caregivers utilize them to reinforce communal care and caregiving routines. These adaptations reflect the cultural values of individual autonomy versus collectivism and emphasize the importance of context-sensitive technology use. The study concludes that welfare technologies must be designed with cultural sensitivity and flexibility to support diverse caregiving environments. Such an approach will allow systems to better meet caregivers’ needs, reduce continuous adaptations, and enhance care quality across different cultural contexts.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature , 2025. p. 3-15
Keywords [en]
Bricolage, Cross-cultural Comparison, Welfare Technology
National Category
Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-368633DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-93730-9_1ISI: 001553901400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105008493128OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-368633DiVA, id: diva2:1990015
Conference
17th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design, CCD 2025, held as part of the 27th HCI International Conference, HCII 2025, Gothenburg, Sweden, Jun 22 2025 - Jun 27 2025
Note
Part of ISBN 9783031937293]
QC 20250819
2025-08-192025-08-192025-12-05Bibliographically approved