Civilian First Responder mHealth Apps, Interface Rhetoric, and Amplified Precarity.
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Our article uses case studies of two civilian emergency response mHealth apps—PulsePoint and OD Help—to theorize the ways the mobile mapping functionality embedded in these tools, which is integrated with the Google Maps platform, enables yet also constrains users’ agential practices. Using an interface rhetoric approach, we unpack assumptions related to the embodied contexts of use facilitated by this functionality within the unique scenario of civilian emergency response. We argue that interactions between and among humans and these apps’ mapping interfaces involve complex, negotiated, contextually situated enactments, which align with a posthumanist perspective toward agency. At the same time, these interactions may also inadvertently amplify the precarity of vulnerable groups. Better understanding the ways that mobile mapping technologies shape agential enactments, particularly in ways that affect precarious and dispossessed populations, has important implications for the design of mHealth technologies—and the users who rely on them—moving forward.
Date Issued
2022-04-26
Publication Type
Article
Subjects
functionality / apps / mHealth / amplify the precarity / civilian / enactments / Rhetoric / emergency
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Welhausen, Candice | |
Bivens, Kristin Marie | Institut für Sozial- und Präventivmedizin (ISPM) |
Additional Credits
Institut für Sozial- und Präventivmedizin (ISPM)
Journal
Rhetoric of Health & Medicine
Publisher
University of Florida Press
ISSN
2573-5055
Access(Rights)
open.access