Health and society - conceptual paradoxes and challenges for a business plan, for a new political agenda and for a strategy for action in the information age

Abstract

The present paper considers the activity of tele-care within the broad framework of the information age, of how modern society is organised and of the structuring role of the health sector. The importance of key concepts such as social structures, human agency and the instance of being-in-the-world, are highlighted and explored. The inputs of computer ethics, critical realism and philosophy of action are used and presented. These conceptual arguments are applied to the particular settings of tele-care business planning and of policy making. This paper assumes the controversial role of questioning our own assumptions as thoroughly as possible, and of working from that questioning process.