Tracing data flows in Norway and Austria

Abstract

The increased importance of datafication in different domains of society, and health in particular, has generated much attention in STS, specifically in the Nordic context. While much of this literature tackles newly emerging forms of data governance, we focus on a historically established and mundane data practice: that of recording vaccinations in vaccine registries. We mobilise the concept of data flows to compare the link between registry practices and governance in two countries: Norway – a data intensive welfare state - and Austria, which we label ‘data hesitant’. We ask: What is the role of registries in vaccination governance? How do data practices shape and reflect relations between citizens, health providers and the state? We show that the governance of immunity is interlocked with the material and political circumstances that make data flow. The paper makes visible the benefits of doing situated comparisons for better understandings of data practices across countries.