Two STS-b memberts, Dr. Miquel Domènech & Dr. Núria Vallès-Peris, coordinated as Guest Editors A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601).
The incorporation of technological solutions to all kinds of problems is something which is becoming more and more present in our daily life. Care is not an exception. Teleassistance devices, diabetes monitoring systems, intelligent houses or robotic pets are examples of present caring technologies that condition and modulate our relations with the environment and with others. “In the Hands of Technology: Care in the XXI Century” is an invitation to reflect on the development of care technologies, with a special interest in identifying the main challenges of the intensification of the implementation of technology into care processes.
Faced with discourses that often see the incorporation of technology into care processes as inevitable, we propose an in-depth discussion on how we want to be cared for in the future. Not to deny a role to technology, but to take it to the point where it can serve as a contribution to good care. For instance: What are the ethics of care embedded in technological developments? Do caring artifacts respond to the emotional and social needs of most vulnerable people? What is the economic and political logic behind the development of care robots and other similar technologies? How do the different groups involved in the care activities participate in the conception and design of these devices?
This Special Issue departed from the present, but it is a reflection on the future, on how we want to approach our life in common with the machines of tomorrow. It is a reflection on how we want to grow, how we want to age, the world we want to be born in, and the technologies we will find in it.
The list of topics included:
- The future of care
- Ethical issues
- The impact of technology in vulnerable groups
- The role of robots in care
- The design of technologies of care
- Imaginaries of care technologies
- Aging in a technological world
- Care technology assessment
- STS approach to care
You can check the Special Issue and the papers selected on this link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph/special_issues/Technology_Care