The potential of robotics technologies to assist in the care of older adults and people with disabilities has attracted great interest worldwide. To date, few studies have examined the impact of care robots outside of laboratory experiments or short-term field trials. Based on ethnographic research in Japan, Denmark, and Germany, this talk examines the impact of robotics on everyday practices of care as well as the role of robot-assisted care practice in driving technological innovation.

Shawn Bender is a cultural anthropologist and professor of East Asian Studies at Dickinson College. His research focuses on the impact of robotics on relations of work and care.

Cosponsored by the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health; Asian Studies; Gerontology; Human Contexts of Science and Technology; and the Center for Social Science Scholarship.