Emotional labour in the collaborative data practices of repurposing healthcare data and building data technologies

This article focuses on emotions, conceptualised as emotional labour, evoked during data practices used to repurpose and enable healthcare journeys for Finnish public healthcare. Combined approaches from critical studies the sociology of emotions were contribute a better understanding mundane but often invisible work experts involved in practices, such facilitating building technologies. The is based two-and-a-half-year ethnographic study conducted regional social service organisation. results derived analysis 39 interviews fieldnotes produced by observing 170 h various meetings, events activities performed experts. organised into three forms observed experts’ labour related phases journeys: (a) caring production preparing travel, (b) managing excitement frustration processing continually management system, (c) reassuring users making sense obtained analytics. greater generated relation volatile nature collaborative character practices. advocates recognition aspects their implications data-based knowledge datafication processes