Simulating the Healthy Body : How Exoskeletal Devices Invent New Forms of Capability in Rehabilitative Environment

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2021
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Conference Proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2021 : Critical Issues in Science, Technology‚ and Society Studies / Cole, Nicki Lisa; Jahrbacher, Michaela; Getzinger, Günter (ed.). - Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2021. - pp. 89-108. - ISBN 978-3-85125-855-4
Abstract
Exoskeletons are recent robotic developments in rehabilitation that draw attention to new ways of perceiving impairments. While simulating human walking or movements of the arms, exoskeletons redefine basic experiential parameters such as “motor intentionality” (Merleau-Ponty, [1945] 2012, p. 112-113; Pacherie, 2018), but also various forms of experiencing one’s body as being abled. Hence, exoskeletons are markers of a partial transition from “I cannot” to “I can”, which they perform through the simulation of healthy bodies. Although these changes take place mostly in the confined space of a clinic or lab, they are of major importance, and open the possibility to interrogate how the contextual use of exoskeletons in clinical environments changes the status of their users to “temporarily abled.” In these new rehabilitative techniques, users are engaged in specific forms of “body work” (Gimlin, 2002; Gimlin, 2007). After first describing the current state of exoskeletal devices, I will analyze how healthy bodies are used as materials to provide models for impaired ones and discuss procedures of simulation based on a logic of “essentialization.” In the next section, I will explore the specificity of “body work” with exoskeletons for rehabilitation purposes and how further conceptions of intercorporeality emerge due to the development of these novel technologies. I will support my arguments with excerpts from qualitative empirical material from sociological research conducted between 2014 and 2021 and correlate them to the phenomenology of the body.
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300 Social Sciences, Sociology
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STS Conference Graz 2021, May 3, 2021 - May 5, 2021, Graz
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ISO 690BUTNARU, Denisa, 2021. Simulating the Healthy Body : How Exoskeletal Devices Invent New Forms of Capability in Rehabilitative Environment. STS Conference Graz 2021. Graz, May 3, 2021 - May 5, 2021. In: COLE, Nicki Lisa, ed., Michaela JAHRBACHER, ed., Günter GETZINGER, ed.. Conference Proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2021 : Critical Issues in Science, Technology‚ and Society Studies. Graz:Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, pp. 89-108. ISBN 978-3-85125-855-4. Available under: doi: 10.3217/978-3-85125-855-4-05
BibTex
@inproceedings{Butnaru2021Simul-57960,
  year={2021},
  doi={10.3217/978-3-85125-855-4-05},
  title={Simulating the Healthy Body : How Exoskeletal Devices Invent New Forms of Capability in Rehabilitative Environment},
  isbn={978-3-85125-855-4},
  publisher={Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz},
  address={Graz},
  booktitle={Conference Proceedings of the STS Conference Graz 2021 : Critical Issues in Science, Technology‚ and Society Studies},
  pages={89--108},
  editor={Cole, Nicki Lisa and Jahrbacher, Michaela and Getzinger, Günter},
  author={Butnaru, Denisa}
}
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    <dcterms:abstract xml:lang="eng">Exoskeletons are recent robotic developments in rehabilitation that draw attention to new ways of perceiving impairments. While simulating human walking or movements of the arms, exoskeletons redefine basic experiential parameters such as “motor intentionality” (Merleau-Ponty, [1945] 2012, p. 112-113; Pacherie, 2018), but also various forms of experiencing one’s body as being abled. Hence, exoskeletons are markers of a partial transition from “I cannot” to “I can”, which they perform through the simulation of healthy bodies. Although these changes take place mostly in the confined space of a clinic or lab, they are of major importance, and open the possibility to interrogate how the contextual use of exoskeletons in clinical environments changes the status of their users to “temporarily abled.” In these new rehabilitative techniques, users are engaged in specific forms of “body work” (Gimlin, 2002; Gimlin, 2007). After first describing the current state of exoskeletal devices, I will analyze how healthy bodies are used as materials to provide models for impaired ones and discuss procedures of simulation based on a logic of “essentialization.” In the next section, I will explore the specificity of “body work” with exoskeletons for rehabilitation purposes and how further conceptions of intercorporeality emerge due to the development of these novel technologies. I will support my arguments with excerpts from qualitative empirical material from sociological research conducted between 2014 and 2021 and correlate them to the phenomenology of the body.</dcterms:abstract>
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