Touch Future X ROBOT”: Examining Production, Consumption, And
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The London School of Economics and Political Science “Touch Future x ROBOT”: Examining Production, Consumption, and Disability at a Social Robot Research Laboratory and a Centre for Independent Living in Japan Michael Berthin A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, July 2014 1 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 99052 words. Statement of use of third party for editorial help I can confirm that my thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Eona Bell. 2 Abstract This thesis contributes to anthropological discussions on the relationship between production and consumption by engaging in multi-sited ethnography that investigates the design of social robots in cutting-edge Japanese research laboratories and also explores the day-to-day lives of Japanese disabled people who are potential consumers of such devices. By drawing on these disparate groups, located in disparate sites, this thesis traces connections but also disconnections as it analyses the 'friction' between the technical problem-solving of researchers and the organized activist politics of disabled people. It investigates the rationales of robot research, messy and multiple, as well as the material and political impetus behind the 'barrier free' movement for independent living. Social robots hold a special interest in Japan because not only do many people, both inside and outside of Japan, believe that the nation has a unique cultural interest and affinity for robots, but, with an ageing population, the Japanese state has looked toward social robots as potential care-givers and as a solution to the 'demographic crisis'. Through the engagement of both science and technology studies and disability studies, this thesis focuses on the theme of problems to show how the problem-making approach of robotics researchers, which identifies problems of the body as a disability to be solved by a technical fix in the form of a robot, contrasts with the perspective from disabled people themselves, who see disability as a problem of society and the environment rather than the individual and the body. 3 Table of Contents Declaration.................................................................................................................................................2 Abstract......................................................................................................................................................3 List of Abbreviations................................................................................................................................10 Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................................11 Notes on Naming and Language Use.......................................................................................................13 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................14 The Robot Kingdom: Social Robots and the Japanese Context..........................................................16 Japanese Science and Technology: Robots for the Future..............................................................16 Spiritual and Cultural Affinity........................................................................................................18 Social Robots to Assist Elderly and Disabled People.....................................................................22 The Demographic Crisis.................................................................................................................24 Analytical issues: Production/Consumption and Diversity.................................................................25 “Production” and “Consumption”: fieldwork in two contexts.......................................................27 Japan and Diversity.........................................................................................................................37 The Recent Interest in Japan's Diversity....................................................................................38 A Few Notes on Nihonjinron.....................................................................................................41 Disability and Identity................................................................................................................43 Global Movements.....................................................................................................................47 The Field and Methodology................................................................................................................49 Personal Trajectory and Background..............................................................................................50 Language....................................................................................................................................51 4 Laboratory Fieldwork.....................................................................................................................51 Access to the laboratory.............................................................................................................53 Overview of the Laboratory.......................................................................................................54 Technology and Care in the Wild: Fieldwork with Disabled People..............................................59 Access to the Centre for Independent Living............................................................................61 Methods and Problems of (Re)Presentation...................................................................................63 Ethnography of the Known........................................................................................................64 Ethnography of the Unknown....................................................................................................65 Multi-sited, Fragmentary, and Un-Sited Ethnography...................................................................67 Chapter Outline: Constructing an Ethnography of Social Robots and Disability...............................70 Section 1: Production in the Laboratory..................................................................................................73 Chapter 1: Engineering, Science, and Coolness: The Rationales of Social Robot Research in Japan....74 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................74 The “Typical” Japanese Organization.................................................................................................76 Shifts in Japanese Production.........................................................................................................78 Is the PC Laboratory “unique”?......................................................................................................81 Engineering.........................................................................................................................................83 Science.................................................................................................................................................88 Constructivist Cognitive Science....................................................................................................88 Humanoid Robots as the Perfect Experimental Actors...................................................................90 Coolness..............................................................................................................................................98 Balancing Rationales and The Economies of Social Robot Research..............................................104 Demonstrations.............................................................................................................................105 5 Science and Publications..............................................................................................................110 Patents...........................................................................................................................................111 Representation and the Success of a Project.................................................................................112 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................113 Chapter 2: The Wizard of Oz: Problematization in Social Robot Research..........................................117 Introduction.......................................................................................................................................117