This is the audio recording from the webinar ‘Navigation practices in times of extended crisis: Preliminary findings from a comparative study’ that took place on Tuesday 15 September 2020. Note: the audio of this webinar has been slightly modified for a smoother listening experience and the Q&A session has been removed for privacy reasons. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Across different parts of the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to breakdowns and shifts in the social and technical (“sociotechnical”) assemblages on which people rely for food, shelter, work, education, socialisation and more. Individuals have had to acquire information, make decisions and accomplish tasks—such as determining whether and how to seek healthcare or other necessities—amidst changing conditions, fragmented service systems and high levels of uncertainty. This webinar presents preliminary findings from a multi-country qualitative study concerned with how different groups cope during extended periods of crisis.

Building on research regarding navigation practices drawn from human-centred computing and information science, Professors Henne and Pine explain how Australian and US participants frame and reflect on barriers and strategies. Interviews reveal competing tensions in navigating risk and varying perceptions of authority, which offer insight into the challenges of balancing individual needs and collective problem-solving during times of crisis. Taken together, the data illuminate the networks of relationships that participants navigate as well as distinct regulatory challenges they pose. In particular, these concerns crystallise around questions of risk and inequality, which is the focus of the second phase of this research.

About the speakers

Kathleen (Katie) Pine is an Assistant Professor in the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. Her interdisciplinary work lies at the intersection of human centred computing, organisation studies and Science and Technology Studies and examines how people use information and communications technologies (ICTs) as part of healthcare practice and how the design of ICTs, the contexts of ICT use, and the ways that people use ICTs impact how people give and receive healthcare. Her research has been published in top venues, such as Academy of Management Journal, Health Informatics Journal, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM CHI), and ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (ACM CSCW). This work has been supported by grants from agencies and foundations, including National Science Foundation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Kathryn (Kate) Henne is a Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), where she currently serves as Director. An interdisciplinary scholar, her research interests are concerned with how science and technology contribute to the governance of persons and populations. Her research and publications span a range of issues, including biometric surveillance, criminological knowledge production, human enhancement and well-being, regulatory science, and technologies of policing. She also leads RegNet’s Justice and Technoscience (JusTech) Lab, which brings together scholars from leading universities in Australia and overseas to study regulatory strategies for the advancement of more just and equitable approaches to the governance of science and technology.

Image: Digitisation network image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay, Pixabay licence.