Skip to main content
Indonesia Council Open Conference 2025
Times are shown in your local time zone GMT

Digital Health in Mundane Practices: An Ethnographic Study of Care Through Technology for Stunting Reduction in Indonesia

Organised Panel

Submission Description

Institution: LPPSP Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia

Digitalization has profoundly transformed healthcare governance, healthcare workers, and patient experiences in Indonesia. We examine the impact of digital transformation in healthcare by theorizing the "mundane"—the everyday practices through which digital health technologies are integrated and reshape health knowledge, practices, and governance, particularly in Indonesia's stunting reduction program. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Padang (West Sumatra), Semarang (Central Java), and Ruteng (East Nusa Tenggara), it highlights the marginalization of the often-invisible labor of health cadres, the “everyday ethics” (Pols, 2024) that guide health workers, cadres, and caregivers, and the affective and labor dimensions of care (de la Bellacasa, 2011). While digital health technologies in stunting governance disproportionately burden health cadres, they also enable the enactment of “response-ability” in caring for children and communities. This study illustrates how digital health transforms care practices and the ethics underpinning them in everyday life. 

Keywords : digital health, healthcare governance, health cadres, stunting reduction, Indonesia

Presenters

Presenters

Individual Paper Presenters

Ms. Diana Pakasi - LPPSP Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia