Naslov
Blending the Social and Solidarity Economy with Corporate Social Responsibility? Barriers and Opportunities in Context of Digital Healthcare in Croatia

Autori
Tomičić, Ana ; Malešević, Anamaria ; Čartolovni, Anto

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Skup
Practicing solidarity for the future

Mjesto i datum
Zagreb, Hrvatska, 14.09.2022. - 16.09.2022

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Recenziran

Ključne riječi
AI ; healthcare ; SSE ; CSR ; Croatia

Sažetak
From the World Wide Web to connected devices, digital technology consists essentially of interconnections. In all likelihood, some aspects of the digital interconnection may spiral traditional power relations, culminating in the Dark Web. Yet, the digital environment could also grow into fostering altruism and solidarity. Public and private health, fashioned through a multitude of interactions based on learning, community development and access to care, have already seen significant benefits: in terms of advanced medical science, imaging and surgery, and most notably with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). Moreover, the development of digital technologies, which have gradually promoted globalized trade and international competition, has heightened awareness of a pressing need to revamp economic structures towards a social and solidarity economy (SSE). As a guiding thread for our reflection, we refer to Abdennour Bidar’s statement (2016) that “all contemporary crises [...] are crises of social connectedness”. How could connection not be central to our lives, which today seem to be complemented by a digital twin operating in multiple modes: as guidance, as warning, as ranking, as direction, as prescription? And secondly, to what extent can the SSE draw upon and foster critical thinking about digital health? If we expect the SSE to adapt to digitalization, can’t we also work to ensure that the digital world adapts to the SSE? Have we taken the necessary steps to define the digital world we want, rather than the digital world we are subjected to? Therefore, a subjacent question is: which SSE models are envisaged and promoted in the digital society? A number of entrepreneurs have positioned themselves in the domain of corporate social responsibility (CSR), with the backing of international organizations. Should we regard such initiatives as utopian or do they herald profound transformations of the Western economic system into a human economy (Hart, 2013)? Empirical research can cast light on the unfolding of this process in terms of understanding its drivers, and assessing the risks of ethical drift. We present the preliminary results of an empirical analysis with key stakeholders of the AI-based health ecosystem in Croatia. Respondents (n=75) were identified stakeholders in the digital healthcare context: patients, physicians, engineers, jurists, hospital managers and policymakers. Their knowledge about AI, big data, etc. and associated issues ranges from expert to genesis stage. Our results suggest that levels of involvement, objectives and interests vary considerably from one group to another. Their positions oscillate between the commitment to improve public health and the desire to develop new profitable markets. The question of gender biases, political corruption, of providing digital healthcare for vulnerable groups and in rural areas, the calling into question of public funds, greater democratic transparency, increased international competition and the rise of collaborative and participatory tools in a context of CSR are some of elements that illustrate the changing nature of these ecosystems. To that end, an economy of social entrepreneurship would do well to heed the watchwords of a platform cooperativism (Papadimitropoulos, 2021), fostering real alternatives and solving “the crisis of social connectedness“

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

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