Autism Robot Therapy, Remediation, and Mimetic Disabling
This article presents a critical study of the discursive positioning of social robots as intermediaries in remedial practices of care in autism therapy. It begins by examining the promotion of social robots to augment autistic children’s social skills as a form of remediation in which they take on...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Simon Dawes, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Media Theory |
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| Online Access: | https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/585 |
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| Summary: | This article presents a critical study of the discursive positioning of social robots as intermediaries in remedial practices of care in autism therapy. It begins by examining the promotion of social robots to augment autistic children’s social skills as a form of remediation in which they take on a mediator role between therapist and patient. Drawing from McGuire’s genealogy of autism advocacy, I argue that the therapy robots operate as part of a network of coordinating and normalizing strategies that emerges in response to the evident “crisis” of autism. Hayle’s concept of material metaphor is then applied to highlight the potential discursive-material relations of the interposing role played by the robot. Finally, I argue that though designed as an enabling device, in actuality, metaphoric transferences make the robots mimetically disabling.
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| ISSN: | 2557-826X |