Engineering care in pandemic technogovernance: The politics of care in China and South Korea's COVID-19 tracking apps

This article critically examines South Korea and China's COVID-19 tracking apps by bridging surveillance studies with feminist technoscience's understanding of the "politics of care". Conducting critical readings of the apps and textual analysis of discursive materials, we demonstrate how the ideological, relational, and material practices of the apps strategically deployed "care" to normalize a particular form of pandemic technogovernance in these two countries. In the ideological dimension, media and state discourse utilized a combination of vilifying and nationalist rhetoric that framed one's acquiescence to surveillance as a demonstration of national belonging. Meanwhile, the apps also performed ambivalent roles in facilitating essential care services and mobilizing self-tracking activities, which contributed to the manufacturing of pseudonormality in these societies. In the end, we argue that the Chinese and South Korean governments managed to frame their aggressive surveillance infrastructure during COVID-19 as a form of paternalistic care by finessing the blurred boundaries between care and control. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Media & Society is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The Necessity of Introducing Autonomous Trucks in Logistics 4.0

Autonomous vehicles have become important with the emergence of Logistics 4.0. Moreover, truck-based transport has become the critical means of transport in the logistics market. Thus, to deal with the pending issues of the logistics market, it is not enough to merely expand the workforce. Adopting autonomous trucks will also help change the truck allocation structure. This may enable horizontal and vertical integration based on the new logistics model and help address various problems faced by shipping companies. Thus, adopting autonomous trucks can provide various benefits for the logistics business, society, and consumers. However, adopting autonomous trucks does not only have benefits. Here, this study suggests truck platooning as a method of adopting autonomous trucks more efficiently. Furthermore, we approach the potential issues regarding autonomous truck adoption from various perspectives by demonstrating the efficiency of autonomous trucks as well as their problems.

Engineering care in pandemic technogovernance: The politics of care in China and South Korea’s COVID-19 tracking apps

This article critically examines South Korea and China?s COVID-19 tracking apps by bridging surveillance studies with feminist technoscience?s understanding of the ?politics of care?. Conducting critical readings of the apps and textual analysis of discursive materials, we demonstrate how the ideological, relational, and material practices of the apps strategically deployed ?care? to normalize a particular form of pandemic technogovernance in these two countries. In the ideological dimension, media and state discourse utilized a combination of vilifying and nationalist rhetoric that framed one?s acquiescence to surveillance as a demonstration of national belonging. Meanwhile, the apps also performed ambivalent roles in facilitating essential care services and mobilizing self-tracking activities, which contributed to the manufacturing of pseudonormality in these societies. In the end, we argue that the Chinese and South Korean governments managed to frame their aggressive surveillance infrastructure during COVID-19 as a form of paternalistic care by finessing the blurred boundaries between care and control.

Tracking bodies in question: telecom companies, mobile data, and surveillance platforms in South Korea’s epidemic governance

In the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, many countries across the world have developed new health surveillance technologies using digital tools and communication data to monitor and manage confirmed and suspected carriers of the virus. This article demonstrates the growing centrality of mobile network operators in managing global health crises through a case study of South Korea’s epidemic governance. In South Korea, KT, one of the country’s three telecommunications companies, has been actively developing and investing in health surveillance platforms since 2015, promoting that its big-data-based surveillance and ICT infrastructures may prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Conducting a situational analysis of archival materials, I document the process through which such mobile network operators emerge as essential producers of the data infrastructures that shape the understanding and management of public health emergencies. The article also addresses the sociocultural implications of such private technology corporations’ capturing of emergency power. In the end, I argue that Korea’s public health surveillance systems are increasingly constructed within the capitalist logic of the telecom industry, mainly via ‘platformization’ – a shift that offers telecom firms to transform from network to platform operators by extracting and aggregating subscribers' data. The case analyzed here demonstrates how granting such extraordinary authority to ICT companies during national emergencies becomes routinized, and even instrumentalized for economic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Information, Communication & Society is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)