Health at work: Time for digitalization? Technological innovation and the challenge of representing activity
The defense will take place on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at 2 p.m., in room B021-B023 of the Bienvenüe building, 14/20 bd Newton, Cité Descartes – 77420 Champs sur Marne, Plot B, RDC.
The jury will be composed of:
Marc-Éric BOBILLIER-CHAUMON
, professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (rapporteur)
Sophie BRETESCHÉ
, professor, Institut Mines Telecom Atlantique (rapporteur)
Pascale LEVET
, associate professor, University of Lyon 3 (examiner)
Manuel ZACKLAD
, professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (examiner)
Pascal UGHETTO
, university professor, Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (thesis supervisor)
Thesis summary
Digital technologies based on artificial intelligence, which have been gaining popularity in recent years, make it possible to collect large amounts of data containing valuable information, to the point that companies are now considering using them in the workplace. Their designers suggest using the data collected as a means of promoting the development of occupational health policies by gathering data on work activity. Is this a real tool for advancing the design of policies for the prevention and treatment of risks, accidents, and occupational diseases, or is it a technocratic illusion? Is it knowledge about work that benefits employees as much as employers and insurers, or is it a new surveillance tool? These technologies raise many questions (use, purpose, applications). The thesis argues that one of the most crucial questions is the conceptual model underlying the design of these objects: does the model represent work as a mechanical and controllable act or as an activity carried out by individuals? Its objective is to shed light on the issue of how work is taken into account through the analysis of a series of technical innovations that some, who still question their usefulness, want to see as solutions for the future. By analyzing how a digital market attempts to structure and legitimize itself, we show how a representation of "connected health at work" is constructed by actors who are sometimes very distant from this field and who are engaged in the dissemination of new models of innovation, finding echoes in the history of the construction of occupational health issues, particularly those based on quantification. When these new technological forms are confronted with the reality of practices, the thesis shows, by focusing both on the construction of the innovation system and on the issues raised by these experiments and the meanings attached to them by project leaders and their recipients, that the design of the service cannot ignore the link between technology and work. Furthermore, the thesis argues that this link is not self-evident and requires investment in the design process to support learning about both the technical and design methodologies and work-related issues.
Keywords
: digital, work activity, occupational health, digital, technologies, artificial intelligence