Abstract:
In this article the authors, a philosopher and a social development practitioner, formulate
recommendations for responsible planning of technical interventions in health care
relations under circumstances of uncertainty and moral risk. It is proposed that the
hermeneutic approach followed in this article could serve as a heuristic guide to research
and development teams in the planning phase of similar projects to proceed in a
responsible manner. The introduction of mobile phone technology by a managed health
care service provider to clients from a low-income South African context is used as a test
case to illustrate the value of the proposed heuristic approach. The strength of this
approach is situated in its coordination of general anthropological considerations, with
interpretative attention to particularities. The test case is a relevant to the problem since
it cannot be assumed that the same habitus of acquaintance with the mobile phone
apparatus has been formed in the low-income South African context as in contexts or
societies where people have been using telephones for decades.
