| Sumario: | Purpose In recent years, the design, use and study of robots have increased in the social settings of therapy and care for older adults. In parallel with these developments, voices have been raised advocating for more human-centered and holistic approaches to research on robot technology (1 ; 2). In particular, the need to critically address underlying technology-driven values (3; 4), and to question the role of machines in the process of communication (5) have been emphasized. More interdisciplinary work is also required to assess the design and use of robots in an increasing range of such settings. The aim of the talk is to critically investigate the use of robots in care, and make visible the challenges and dilemmas of robot use in the surroundings of healthcare and older adults. Method The paper draws from a critical analysis of discourses and practices in care robotics. It combines several methods all grounding in an ethnographic approach. It combines the participation in four different sites with indepth interviews, informal talks with researchers and representative users, living lab experiences and observations from scholarly and industry meetings, as well as the re-reading of existing academic studies. Results & Discussion In our talk we want to examine and criticize this interconnection of robotics and care on three levels. On the macro level we show how both the scientific goal to create robots and the public healthcare sector are made available for each other by European innovation politics (6). On the meso level we address the configurations of different actors within healthcare settings and how care technology, especially the care robot, is intervening in there (7). On the micro level we show how care is made an object of robotic engineering. In this perspective we reconstruct that and how of all possible applications the areas of healthcare and nursing fit the requirements and conditions of robotics and HRI (8). With this threefold analysis on robots in care, we criticize the whole notion of care robotics and it's development and suggest ways to overcome the current state.
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