Affect-Based Well-Being in Caring Practices with Companion Robots

Abstract

To investigate how socially assistive robots shape caring practices and support well-being in dementia care settings, this study focuses on agencement—emergent configurations of humans, nonhuman actors, and discourses. Using practice-based action research, the authors introduced the companion robot Hiro in two Italian nursing homes over an 8-month period, involving 22 cognitively impaired residents, followed by a 1-year follow-up. Drawing on qualitative data from observations, interviews, and field notes, the study advances three key contributions, formalized through five propositions. First, caring constitutes a sociomaterial practice, emerging through relational, embodied engagements in which care recipients actively participate in shaping the care. Second, the operationalization of agencement in human–robot dynamics shows how Hiro mobilizes sensory experiences (touch, sound, and movement) to generate relational entanglements that transform caregiving roles and flows of affect. Third, a proposed framework of affect-based well-being, articulated across three interrelated sensory dimensions—psychological (sensory intimacy), physical (sensory responsiveness), and social (sensory bonding)—extends existing service research by capturing embodied, situated, and relational dimensions of well-being. For managers, the findings provide actionable insights for using companion robots to enhance care practices by supporting affect-based well-being, reinforcing relational ties, and enabling personalized, dignified sensory experiences in resource-constrained settings.