Robots Won't Save Japan addresses the Japanese government's efforts to develop care robots in response to the challenges of an aging population, rising demand for eldercare, and a critical shortage of care workers. Drawing on ethnographic research at key sites of Japanese robot development and implementation, James Wright reveals how such devices are likely to transform the practices, organization, meanings, and ethics of caregiving if implemented at scale. This new form of techno-welfare state that Japan is prototyping involves a reconfiguration of care that deskills and devalues care work and reduces opportunities for human social interaction and relationship building. Moreover, contrary to expectations that care robots will save labor and reduce health care expenditures, robots cost more money and require additional human labor to tend to the machines. As Wright shows, robots alone will not rescue Japan from its care crisis. The attempts to implement robot care instead point to the importance of looking beyond such techno-fixes to consider how to support rather than undermine the human times, spaces, and relationships necessary for sustainably cultivating good care.

Robots Won't Save Japan addresses the Japanese government's efforts to develop care robots in response to the challenges of an aging population, rising demand for eldercare, and a critical shortage of care workers. Drawing on ethnographic research at key sites of Japanese robot development and implementation, James Wright reveals how such devices are likely to transform the practices, organization, meanings, and ethics of caregiving if implemented at scale. This new form of techno-welfare state that Japan is prototyping involves a reconfiguration of care that deskills and devalues care work and reduces opportunities for human social interaction and relationship building. Moreover, contrary to expectations that care robots will save labor and reduce health care expenditures, robots cost more money and require additional human labor to tend to the machines. As Wright shows, robots alone will not rescue Japan from its care crisis. The attempts to implement robot care instead point to the importance of looking beyond such techno-fixes to consider how to support rather than undermine the human times, spaces, and relationships necessary for sustainably cultivating good care.

What does later life look like when it is lived in the companionship of other species? Similarly, how do other species age (or not) with humans, and what sort of (a)symmetries, if any, are brought to light around how we understand and think about aging? So far, aging has been investigated in the social sciences in purely human terms. This is the first collection of original work that considers aging as taking place in relation to other species. This volume aims to start a conversation about aging by taking its more-than-human participants seriously—that is, not only as a support for or context of human aging but also, more symmetrically, as agents and subjects in the process of aging. The contributors draw upon richly descriptive ethnographic accounts, including moments of connection between seniors and dogs in a long-term care facility, human care for aging laboratory animals, and robotic companionship in later life. The ethnographies in this volume not only enrich our understanding of more-than-human companionship during the human aging process but also challenge and urge us to rethink what it means to live later in life in ecologically entangled social and moral worlds.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Robots in Society and Culture provides a comprehensive discussion of how social robots take form, function, and meaning for individuals, relationships, cultures, and societies. Through a path-breaking integration of perspectives coming from sociology, communication and media, psychology, cognitive neuroscience, anthropology, political science, and science and technology studies, it focuses on the critical and social meaning of present developments in social robotic technologies. This book looks at artificial agents – from voice-based assistants to humanoid robots— as their use transforms private and public contexts and gives rise to both new possibilities and new perils for human being and becoming, organizations as well as social structures and institutions. The handbook traces the consequences and key problems of social robotics across broad social contexts in both public and political as well as domestic and intimate spaces. Further, it attends carefully to the implications of social robotics for various human identity groups, including those based on gender, ethnicity, culture, class, ability, and age. Deep attention to interdisciplinarity, inclusivity, ethics, and socio-cultural futures serves as the guiding inspiration behind each contribution within this handbook.

Developing robots to interact with humans is a complex interdisciplinary effort. While engineering and social science perspectives on designing human–robot interactions (HRI) are readily available, the body of knowledge and practices related to design, specifically interaction design, often remain tacit. Designing Interactions with Robots fills an important resource gap in the HRI community, and acts as a guide to navigating design-specific methods, tools, and techniques. With contributions from the field's leading experts and rising pioneers, this collection presents state of the art knowledge and a range of design methods, tools, and techniques, which cover the various phases of an HRI project. This book is accessible to an interdisciplinary audience, and does not assume any design knowledge. It provides actionable resources whose efficacy have been tested and proven in existing research. This manual is essential for HRI design students, researchers, and practitioners alike. It offers crucial guidance for the processes involved in robot and HRI design, marking a significant stride toward advancing the HRI landscape.

In recent years, debates over healthcare have accompanied rapid advances in technology, from the expansion of telehealth services to artificial intelligence driven diagnostics. In this book, Shawn Bender delves into the world of Japanese robots engineered for care. Care robots (kaigo robotto) emerged early in the 21st century, when roboticists began converting assembly line technologies into responsive machines for older adults and people with disabilities. These robots are meant to be felt and programmed to feel. While some greet them with enthusiasm, others fear that they might replace a fundamentally human task. Based on fieldwork in Japan, Denmark, and Germany, Bender traces the emergence of care robots in Japan and examines their impact on therapeutic practice around the world. Social science scholarship on robotics tends to be either speculative—imagining life together with robots—or experimental—observing robot-human interaction in laboratories or through short-term field studies. Instead, Bender follows roboticists developing technologies in Japan, and travels with the robots themselves into everyday sites of care, tracking the integration of robots into institutional care and the connection of care practice to robotics development. By exploring the application of Japanese robotics across the globe, Feeling Machines highlights the entanglements of therapeutic practice and technological innovation in an age of more-than-human care.

Japan is attempting to build a new economy. It goes by various names, such as 'Society 5.0', 'sustainable capitalism', and 'new form of capitalism'. It is to be constructed through digital and green transformation, and a 'virtuous cycle of growth and distribution'. The effort faces strong headwinds, including demographic decline and ageing, Japan's external energy dependence and geopolitical turbulence, and the legacies of Japan's 'lost decades'. Nonetheless, since 2015 a path has been identified that steers between Big Tech market oligopoly on the one hand, and an overbearing state on the other. For others facing the same post-neoliberal, sustainability transformation challenges as Japan, this public-private coordinated building effort is noteworthy. Building a New Economy uses an evolutionary conceptual framework of states-and-markets, organizations-and-technology, and institutional change. It shows how the institutional coherence of the manufacturing-centred postwar model broke down, and was followed by the ideological and institutional dissonance of the 'lost decades'. However, new institutional building blocks have been identified and (partially) assembled which could lead Japan towards a new model which is more open and adaptive. These blocks include a reconfigured developmental state, and new forms of coordination with and within the corporate sector, at times encompassing civil society. Importantly, for a country that has favoured social stability over creative destruction, and has struggled with change, the path forward may require 'controlled dis-equilibrium' of institutions rather than tight coherence. 'Society 5.0' and the 'new form of capitalism' claim to be people-centred; making them so will be the crucial challenge.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Technology is quickly becoming an integral part of care systems across the world and is frequently cited in policy discourse as pivotal for solving the ‘crisis’ in care and delivering positive outcomes. Exploring the role of technology in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan, this book examines how technology contributes effectively to the sustainability of these different care systems, which are facing similar emergent pressures, including increased longevity, falling fertility and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers the challenges and opportunities of embedding technologies in care systems and the subsequent outcomes for older and disabled service users, carers and the care workforce.

EmTech Anthropology: Careers at the Frontier emphasizes anthropology’s critical role at the frontier of emerging technologies (EmTech). The book explores the opportunities and challenges that arise as anthropologists venture into the territory of EmTech, pushing the boundaries of traditional academic approaches and methodologies. By sharing the stories and insights of early to mid-career anthropologists working in AI, robotics, Web3, cybersecurity, and other cutting-edge fields, the book provides a possible roadmap for future practitioners seeking to make an impact in the world of EmTech. These anthropologists demonstrate how the discipline's unique perspective and skills can be applied to address the complex ethical, social, and cultural implications of emerging technologies. The volume showcases how anthropologists can act as visionaries, innovators, and early adopters, shaping the trajectory of EmTech towards more ethical, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable futures. It highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, practical impact, and intervention in EmTech contexts while also acknowledging the need for anthropologists to challenge existing narratives and push the boundaries of the discipline itself. EmTech Anthropology: Stories from the Frontier serves as an essential resource for anthropologists, students, and professionals from related disciplines who are interested in exploring the frontiers of anthropology and emerging technologies. By offering a glimpse into the exciting possibilities and compelling insights that emerge when anthropology meets EmTech, the book inspires and guides the next generation of anthropological innovators.

This book introduces readers to the ethical and goal-oriented functions of touch in professional practice. Touch is both an increasingly visible topic today and a core skill in many professions, especially in health, education and social work. This book combines helpful theoretical discussions and practical information, offering a balanced and culturally-informed introduction to an issue that both students and professionals often find difficult to navigate. Chapters discuss the various functions of touch and its uses, giving readers a deeper understanding of the potential of tactile work practices. The authors offer clear legal and ethical guidance to empower learners. They discuss key issues such as harmful touch and the increasing digitisation of patient work. Activities, case studies and further readings promote learning and help readers reflect on their own relationship to touch. This book will be an invaluable resource for students in undergraduate and graduate courses in healthcare, nursing, education and social work, and to practitioners looking for guidance on this topic.