Digital Care-Pathways and Inter-Organizational Systems: A Perspective on Digital Sovereignty Along Shared Responsibilities
摘要
The concept of digital sovereignty has gained attention on levels spanning from individual information sovereignty to digital sovereignty of organizations or the state level, concerning, for example, digital infrastructures. Taking into account the reality of digital work however, information and information systems are practically managed and worked with across organizations and thus, interdependencies challenge a classical notion of a sovereign authority that builds on supreme authority over a certain domain. We argue that for the conceptual understanding to allow for the realities of practical interdependencies, a perspective of sovereignty is needed that considers the shared responsibilities that emerge in these inter-organizational systems settings. We apply this idea to the context of digital care pathways for a practical exploration of the phenomenon in healthcare and suggest a conceptual understanding of inter-organizational, shared digital sovereignty which is informed by shared responsibility. We discuss open questions for further research.