Alicia Albert: Health and Safety at Work: Is it time for digitalisation? Technological innovation and the challenge of representing work

Digital technologies based on artificial intelligence, which have seen a palpable surge in popularity in recent years, make it possible to collect vast amounts of data rich in information, to the extent that businesses are now considering how to utilise them within the workplace. Their developers therefore suggest using the data collected as a means of informing the development of occupational health policies by gathering data on work activity. Is this a genuine tool for advancing the design of policies to prevent and manage risks, accidents and occupational illnesses, or merely a technocratic illusion?

Does this knowledge of work benefit employees as much as it does employers and insurers, or does it merely represent new surveillance tools? These technologies raise numerous questions (regarding their use, purpose and applications). The thesis argues that one of the most crucial questions concerns the conceptual model underlying the design of these devices: does this model represent work as a mechanical and controllable act, or as an activity carried out by individuals? Its aim is to shed light on the question of how work is understood through the analysis of a series of technical innovations which some—who still question their usefulness—wish to see as solutions for the future.

By analysing how a digital market seeks to organise itself and establish its legitimacy, we demonstrate how a conception of ‘connected health in the workplace’ is being shaped by actors who are sometimes far removed from this field, yet who are committed to promoting new models of innovation; this process resonates with the history of how occupational health issues have been framed, particularly those based on quantification.

When these new technological forms come up against the reality of practice, the thesis demonstrates—by examining both the construction of the innovation framework and the issues raised by these experiments, as well as the meanings attached to them by project leaders and their beneficiaries—that service design cannot afford to overlook the link between technology and work.
Furthermore, the thesis argues that this link is not self-evident and requires, in the design phase, a commitment to learning not only about technical and design methodologies but also about labour issues.

Composition of the jury

• Marc-Éric BOBILLIER-CHAUMON, lecturer 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, lecturer at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (examiner)
• Pascal UGHETTO, Professor, University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (PhD supervisor)