Search

There are great expectations around the future of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Such visions often picture vehicles that work everywhere without human interference. In this article we use empirical data from a pilot project taking place in the Norwegian Arctic to explore the place-specificity of such technologies. The case study is used to demonstrate how new configurations of emergent technologies are shaped by the places where the trial unfolds; and how insights produced through working on and with this site contribute to changing visions of AV technologies into questioning issues of transferability and scalability. In this way, the paper contributes to discussions of how pilot projects and testing of emergent technologies in the real world relates to the re-configuring of visions and expectations. The paper highlights how emerging technologies might transform societies, infrastructures, and vehicles towards more computerized configurations in ways that are not anticipated, discussed in public and therefore seldom governed.

This paper analyses representations of non-binary bodies in the animated television series Knights of Sidonia. For some time, posthumanist and gender studies have used the gendered body of the future in television series and other media as a framework to reflect on contemporary human bodies. How are bodies imagined and experienced in this animated TV series, and how is our understanding formed by these representations? I argue that the bodies in Knights of Sidonia can be understood as “post-gendered”, which I analyse in relation to understandings of future gender representations drawn from science fiction. The main case study is the character Izana who, in the first episode, proclaims an agender identity that is biologically sexed as neither male or female. Izana’s biological gender is presented throughout the series as relational: it changes in response to the character they are in love with. A close viewing and analysis of the two seasons released so far shows that, although Izana is initially presented as a character with an alternative third gender, their transition to female reinforces a heteronormative view of sexuality, as their attraction to a male character, Nagate, pushes them to develop female genitalia. This biological sex change prompts Izana to also develop a female gender identity, which I conceptualise as “relational gender”. Although it initially represents gender in a novel manner, the anime partly reinforces traditional gender norms. Keywords: Post-gendered body; Cyborg anthropology; anime; relational gender; posthuman sexualities Copyright © 2019 for the Finnish Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy Research. Content in Fafnir is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0)

Denne rapporten oppsummerer hovedresultater og anbefalinger fra det tre-årige prosjektet Smart teknologi for et bærekraftig landbruk (SmaT, 2018-2021). Prosjektet har vært et samarbeid mellom Felleskjøpet Agri, Norsk landbrukssamvirke og Mære landbruksskole og forskere fra Ruralis og NTNU, og har også involvert teknologiorienterte bønder og andre fagfolk. Arbeidet er finansiert av Forskningsmidlene for jordbruk og matindustri, samt med egeninnsats fra brukerpartnerne i prosjektet.

This paper explores how robots that are not designed for being social can still act and be perceived as social and what form this social interaction takes. We look at Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) at a Norwegian hospital that interact with patients, nurses, caregivers and other machinery. These robots are primarily tasked with moving goods, and are programmed to be automated, e.g., taking hospital elevators by themselves. Although the robots are unanthropomorphized, our research shows a strong perception of autonomy of the AGVs, specifically in relation to how voices and appearances of robots can make the robots more acceptable through appearing more “alive.” They take part in an intricate domestication process as non-human actors relating to the human actors that also frequent the hospital corridors, making them part of the digitalization infrastructure at the hospital. We also suggest that there is a fourth dimension at work, which we term Social Domestication. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This document presents the Societal Readiness Plan for the Horizon Europe funded Coordination and Support Action project Robotics4EU (2020-2023). The plan includes both project-internal and stakeholder-external frameworks for ensuring that: (1) a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework is being developed, implemented and followed throughout the project; and (2) a Social Readiness Level (SRL) framework is put into action, both as a tool within the project for a Maturity Assessment Model, and for external evaluations of robotics-technologies. The goal of both RRI- and SRL-tools is to ensure that the project meets its impact goals of better integrating robotics-technologies into the European society.

In this report, we present the journeys of 21 policyworkers from across Europe who participated in the Policy Fellowship programme of the EU-funded Energy-SHIFTS project (Energy Social sciences & Humanities Innovation Forum Targetting the SET-Plan). This programme aimed to establish research-policy dialogue, by directly connecting researchers working across the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) with those on the energy policy ‘frontline’. In the first half of 2020, our 21 Policy Fellows - which and exchanges with 3-6 carefully matched energy-SSH researchers, or Policy Associates.This report therefore includes 19 full Fellowshipreports, in which we describe the Fellows’ policycontext, policy challenges, how they were matchedwith their Associates, main discussion points and SSHinsights generated, as well as how these were translated to policy impacts. For the purpose of organisingthe Fellowships, the Fellows were divided over five thematic categories: Citizen Engagement; SocialAcceptance; Just Transitions; Behaviours; and Human Capital. While these categories enabled a closer interactionbetween Fellows and the Energy-SHIFTS team, they are by no means mutually exclusive, with many content overlaps occurring.

This doctoral thesis is an explorative study of craftspeople working in the building sector. It looks at both new and existing buildings, which are increasingly undergoing sustainable framing. It also investigates the practices of craftspeople working as agents of sustainability, who retrofit and build homes in line with climate change mitigation policies. The thesis consists of four articles and an extended introduction (comprised of seven chapters). In the introduction, I provide a broad overview of the research context – the Norwegian building sector – and research subjects – craftspeople working in the sector. I also position the thesis within the theoretical framework of science and technology studies (STS), before introducing two theoretical concepts – framing theory and social practice theory – which I apply in a cross-cutting analysis of the four articles. The introduction also explains my methodological choices and outlines the manner in which I utilized qualitative interviews as my main empirical material. The first article explores why energy retrofitting in private dwellings is difficult, and looks at the building sector’s governance by numbers, which is carried out by craftspeople working as energy consultants. These craftspeople are analyzed as intermediaries between an unruly building sector and a political governing body that seeks to frame sustainable buildings in a particular way. The second article looks at how environmental policies have given craftspeople new jobs and roles, inviting them to retrofit old homes to meet energy reduction standards. These new practices are shown to have transformed the craftspeople into sustainable, green-collar workers. The third article investigates and critically analyzes the tools that these new workers use, placing particular focus on energy saving calculators. The craftspeople working with this must learn how to use these tools and fit them into existing routines. However, the script of energy calculators does not necessarily facilitate professional domestication of the tools. The fourth and final article discusses craftsmanship within technologized building projects, focusing on the relation between sustainability and craftsmanship on the construction site. It shows how the craftspeople negotiate their role as planning agents at major construction sites and how their hands-on knowledge is transferred to actual buildings, through different production philosophies. In the conclusion, I argue for the concrete involvement of craftspeople in the policies and activities that shape their professions. As one key informant told us: “We know how to do this. We are the ones who build the houses!” As this thesis shows, the development of hands-on knowledge is crucial for undertaking the sustainable transformation to a more energy efficient building sector, which will affect society as a whole.

This thesis explores the robots of Japan in a historical and cultural context, to see how they are co-produced among a wide variety of actors in a network. It is seen both from the creators' side, through their scripting of what a robot should be understood and used as, and also from the user-side, through domestication of the robots. I focus on how the concept of “boundary-objects”, have developed through Japanese history and laid the foundation for robot acceptance. Different understandings of the concept “robot” has been constructed through a cultural-, religious- and social-historical context, leading towards the science fiction representations of robots in manga and anime. Japanese people living today have read about and seen robots in fiction all their lives, a fictional script that has lead the engineers and inventors of real robots. In order to understand the robots in the Japanese society, I decided to seek them out, and have thus done one year of field-work in Tokyo and Osaka, in Japan. Methodologically, the thesis draws on observations and interviews in laboratories and science museums. How the people working on robots think about them are crucial in order to understand the robots themselves, and how people act around robots is greatly affected on the amount of “humanism” they perceive the robot to have. I also explain how it is to control a robot-twin, and see the challenges it raises when “he, she and it” becomes intermingled, and the gender and linguistic questions it arises when talking to and about robots. Lastly, I follow the robots out of the laboratories, and into society, to see how they affect users as a welfare-technology. Japan is a rapidly aging society, and in dire need of manpower, especially in the welfare sector. One solution is to use robots for certain tasks, such as fetching of medicine, walking assistance and cuddles. How the elderlyusers accept and domesticate robots tells us a lot on what roles the robots can and can-not do, and also how they can be developed further. Constructing an identity of a robot nation thus consists of many elements that together co-produces the network at large, with an underlying cultural acceptance of boundary-objects, such as robots.

I Norge står vi i årene fremover overfor demografiske endringer i form av en aldrende befolkning som lever lengre. Dette har stor påvirkning på hvordan helse- og omsorgssektoren jobber. I takt med økende digitalisering og teknologisk utvikling, har derfor norske politiskere presentert velferdsteknologi som en svært sentral del av løsningen på både økonomiske utfordringer og kapasitetsutfordringer. Dette vil være viktig da sykehjemmene vil fylles med eldre sykere beboere, som stiller større krav til pleie og oppfølging fra en allerede presset helsetjeneste. I arbeidet med utviklingen av en mer bærekraftig helse- og omsorgstjeneste for fremtiden, er dermed forestillingen om hvordan omsorg utøves under endring. Dette har stor påvirkning på helsepersonellet arbeidsdag, da hver implementering av ny velferdsteknologi fungerer som en endringsprosess for de ansattes arbeidspraksiser. Med utgangspunkt i det undersøker jeg i denne studien hvordan ansatte ved offentlige sykehjem i Norge erfarer implementeringen av ny velferdsteknologi. Oppgaven har som utgangspunkt en case-studie av et sykehjem som i denne oppgaven vil omtales som ”Aktiva”. Gjennom dybdeintervjuer med fire ansatte og en prosjektleder ved Aktiva vil jeg her undersøke deres erfaringer knyttet til to implementeringer av en digital aktivitetstavle kalt ”Touch & Play”. Da implementering av velferdsteknologi i stor grad handler om møtet mellom bruker og ny teknologi, benytter jeg dimensjonsmodellen for domestisering som analyseverktøy i denne oppgaven. Videre vil dermed funnene som presenteres gjennom denne studien, vise hvordan ansatte i offentlige sykehjem inngår i et krav til evig omstilling, gjennom konstant forhandling, meningsproduksjon og kunnskapsbygging for å imøtekomme nye arbeidspraksiser. In the following years, Norway will face demographic changes that will have major impact on our healthcare sector. In line with the increasing digitalization and technological development, Norwegian politicians have presented welfare technology as a central part of the solution to both future economic challenges, and capacity challenges. This technology will be specifically important for nursing homes as their residents will become older and therefore more fragile due to complex disease patterns, thus requiring even more care and follow-up from an already pressured healthcare infrastructure. As more sustainable healthcare services are developed for the future, the notion of how care can be provided is changing. This has a major impact on the working life of nursing home staff, where each new welfare technology will result in a changing process for the employees work practices. Based on this, I examine through this thesis how employees at public nursing homes in Norway experience the implementation of new welfare technology. This report is based on a case study of a nursing home, which will be referred to as “Aktiva”. Experiences of two implementation processes of the digital activity board “Touch & Play” are examined thorough in-depth interviews with four employees and one project manager. Since the implementation of welfare technology is largely about the meeting between the user(s) and new technology, I use the dimensional model of domestication as an analysis tool. Furthermore, the findings presented through this study will show how employees in public nursing homes accommodate and manage new work practices through constant negotiation, production of meaning and building of knowledge.