Abstract
Technology and power are closely intertwined. As the specialized literature demonstrates, technologies can reinforce processes of exclusion in contemporary societies or permit new strategies for social inclusion to be developed. This book examines a newly emerging technological divide: the robotics divide. Through an innovative and interdisciplinary theoretical approach, the different chapters of the book permit us to open the black box of technological development in a key area in which humans are creating an alter ego (the robot); a phenomenon which will redefine the distribution of power in societies of the twenty-first century.
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Notes
- 1.
Since 1995, we have conducted a prospective research project using a combination of methodologies in the field of robotics and other key technologies. Some of the results have been referenced in the OECD Future Studies database, and published in leading journals in the field of technological forecasting such as Technological Forecasting and Social Change (López et al. 2012; López and Kyriakou 2008). We are grateful to José Felix Tezanos, Professor of Sociology at the UNED and the driving force behind prospective studies in Spain, for his ongoing support of our research.
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López Peláez, A. (2014). Introduction. In: López Peláez, A. (eds) The Robotics Divide. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5358-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5358-0_1
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