Spokespersons, negotiators and actuators. The invisible workers of pervasive healthcare

The increasing availability of miniaturized instruments able to collect, process, and share personal health information is a distinctive feature of new models of pervasive selfcare. However, pervasive care requires that such instruments can also accompany patients in places where their presence is not well accepted (e.g. school classrooms). In this study we focus on the invisible work necessary for such instruments to be available to the patient in those contexts. Drawing on experience acquired during research on the forms of management of type-1 diabetes among children of school age, we show that pervasiveness is not an intrinsic property of technological instruments but is instead the performative result of action by spokespersons, negotiators and actuators. This finding invites reflection on the fact that pervasiveness is a temporary accomplishment realized through the construction of hybrid networks of norms, actions, technological instruments, and human actors.