As students of the tenth and final semester of the Master of Science (MSc) in the Tehno-Anthropology program, this master thesis is an account of the fieldwork we have undertaken and the insights it has produced.
Supported by five qualitative interviews, the theory of Symbolic Interactionism, Strauss’ ‘Social Worlds’, Star and Griesemer’s ‘Boundary Object’ and Bowker and Star’s ‘Standards’ we have set about to contribute with perspectives explaining and problematizing the development of Shared Addiction Care Copenhagen (SACC) - a project aiming towards improving the infrastructure of the practice of Hepatitis treatment for addicts by developing a digital database. With the understanding of SACC being a well-run cross-organisational collaboration between Copenhagen Municipality and Region Hovedstaden we identify social worlds, arenas of negotiation, boundary object and processes of standardization as supporting elements of the maintenance of a ‘social order’ among the contributing actors. We also bring out SACC as an example of how a cross-organizational project can work well supported by common goals, overlapping professionalism and language, mutual confidence and interdependence.
The development of SACC brings along many possibilities and positive outcomes such as a more structured treatment practice with a reduction of risks of errors as well as the creation of a scientific foundation for knowledge production for future Hepatitis treatment. But the development can also become problematic as one might end up creating a somewhat static practice structure for a collaboration supported by dynamic processes in a medical, technological and political domain that is ever changing. We consider this as a paradox and point towards elements demanding attention if the collaboration henceforward should be ‘frictionless’.
With the goal of contributing with constructive documentation and perspectives to the present development we also discuss the SACC-model as a generic model. Here, we point towards our analysis underpinning the perspectives of SACC being a unique ‘situation’ supported by many different elements that goes beyond the model itself.
Through the use of the theoretical input mentioned above, we have set about to contribute with nuanced perspectives on SACC where organisational boundaries are not considered as preventing elements for the collaboration.