Automation, Co-Agency, and Distributed Responsibility: Caring for Hybrid Therapeutic Networks

Abstract Drawing on insights from sociology and science and technology studies, we develop an account of agency as an emergent and relational property constituted within hybrid configurations of humans and machines. We speak of co-agency to capture the ways in which responsible action is jointly produced within human-machine entanglements, with both parties demonstrating purposively intended as well as determined forms of action. By emphasizing the interdependence of sociotechnical systems, therapeutic practices, and institutional automation infrastructures, we argue that responsibility cannot be attributed to discrete actors – whether human or digital – but must instead be understood as generated within the relational processes through which co-agency emerges. This reconceptualization shifts attention from locating isolated bearers of responsibility to examining the socio-technical arrangements that structure action, thereby suggesting recommendations for ethical guidelines aimed at supporting responsible automation in healthcare.