Technologies of care and the engineering imaginary

Two approaches to assistive device design for the Global South

Bibliographic Data

ID2289209
AuthorsVaia Y Sigounas (0000-0003-1821-5563, Department of Epidemiology Gillings School of Global Public Health Chapel Hill North Carolina USA, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume38
Issue1
Pages40-53
Publication date2024-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12818
PMID37824820
OpenAlexW4387568257
LanguageEN
References cited64

Assistive devices serve as vectors for the ideals, judgments, and goals that their society of origin has towards people with disabilities. For some Ugandan inventors and prosthetists, familiarity with sociocultural norms and consistent feedback allow them to design prosthetic limbs as technologies of care that specifically meet the needs of Ugandans using these devices. In contrast, many biomedical engineers living in the United States rely on what I call the "engineering imaginary" to produce universalized forms of assistive technology intended for people living in an essentialized Global South. Drawing on research with engineers, prosthetists, and people living with limb loss in Uganda and the United States, I investigate the social and cultural aspects of prosthetic limb design and argue that there is a cross-cultural mismatch about what a prosthetic device does and what kinds of limbs it should fit. This mismatch becomes inscribed in the prosthetic device itself

Assistive technology · Engineering ethics · Human–computer interaction · Inscribed figure · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · The Imaginary · Assistive Technology in Communication and Mobility · Computer Science · Engineering · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Mathematics · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Psychology

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