To Enhance or Not to Enhance: Gender, Hybrid Identities, and Exoskeletons in the Armed Forces
The main aim of this research project is to explore and analyse how gender is manifested in and through exoskeletons in the military sector.
Exoskeletons are wearable robotic devices that can enhance the bodily capacities of their users. The user can either be equipped with an exoskeleton that covers the entire body or just specific body parts (i.e., upper body, lower body, hands), depending on the intention of use. These wearable robotic devices are either active (battery dependent), passive (no battery) or semi-active/hybrid. The main fields of application include healthcare, industrial and armed forces.
This project explores questions related to meanings, intentions and functions of exoskeletons, with a special focus on how gender operates and is manifested in and through exoskeleton design, construction and development. These questions are particularly interesting when it comes to the development of exoskeletons within the armed forces as very little research looks at the gendered aspects in this area.
The project looks at the current state-of-the-art development process, how producers and developers construct exoskeletons and how (prospective) users of exoskeletons within the armed forces consider the design and development for usability and in connection to their own identity construction. Researchers who conduct studies on exoskeletons are also included in this study to gain an additional academic perspective.
Feminist Methodology
The project uses qualitative methods, such as thematic analysis and critical discourse analysis.
The theoretical approaches are based on militarised masculinities and posthumanist feminist new materialisms.
Contact
- Do you want to know more about this research project? Contact Vanessa Noack, PhD student at the Centre for Gender Research.
- Vanessa Noack