TY - JOUR
T1 - Studying Social Robots in Practiced Places
AU - Bruun, Maja Hojer
AU - Hanghøj, Signe
AU - Hasse, Cathrine
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - What is the strength of anthropological fieldwork when we want to understand human technologies? In this article we argue that anthropological fieldwork can be understood as a process of gaining insight into different contextualisations in practiced places that will open up new understandings of technologies in use, e.g., technologies as multistable ontologies. The argument builds on an empirical study of robots at a Danish rehabilitation centre. Ethnographic methods combined with anthropological learning processes open up new way for exploring how robots enter into professional practices and change values, social relations and materialities. Though substantial funding has been invested in developing health service robots, few studies have been undertaken that explore human-robot interactions as they play out in everyday practice. We argue that the complex learning processes involve not only so-called end-users but also staff, management, doings and discourse in a complex amalgamation of materials and values.
AB - What is the strength of anthropological fieldwork when we want to understand human technologies? In this article we argue that anthropological fieldwork can be understood as a process of gaining insight into different contextualisations in practiced places that will open up new understandings of technologies in use, e.g., technologies as multistable ontologies. The argument builds on an empirical study of robots at a Danish rehabilitation centre. Ethnographic methods combined with anthropological learning processes open up new way for exploring how robots enter into professional practices and change values, social relations and materialities. Though substantial funding has been invested in developing health service robots, few studies have been undertaken that explore human-robot interactions as they play out in everyday practice. We argue that the complex learning processes involve not only so-called end-users but also staff, management, doings and discourse in a complex amalgamation of materials and values.
UR - https://pdcnet.org/techne/onlinefirst
U2 - 10.5840/techne20159833
DO - 10.5840/techne20159833
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1091-8264
VL - 19
SP - 143
EP - 165
JO - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology
JF - Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology
IS - 2
ER -