[Petit Fours #416] On human–robot interaction, stepping stones, and impossible creatures
Hi, all! Without further ado, from the midst of CSCW reviewing, DIS writing, and other back-to-work operations that have left me little time for academic reading, here’s what I’ve got for you today:
#1 In a bit of nice news, Demonstrating How To Train Your Drone got accepted to the demo track of HRI, the primary conference for Human-Robot Interaction. Joe La Delfa is leading the effort – and I’m happy to be involved as a minor supportive actor! (For related work, check out this DIS paper from last year.)
#2 Those interested in platform-mediated labor should check out Platform Labour as a Stepping Stone? Challenging the Dominant Narrative for Danish Housecleaning Platforms, a new article by Konstantinos Floros and Vasilis Galis. Quoting from the abstract: “This article problematises the invocation of the stepping stone hypothesis for platform labour by Danish policymakers, namely the argument that digital labour platforms facilitate transitioning to typical employment, especially for groups of vulnerable workers. Tracing the origins of the stepping stone hypothesis back to the international literature on temporary work agencies and workfare policies triggered by neoliberal policy shifts, the article explores the ideological underpinning of the hypothesis in the Danish context, as Danish policymakers invoked it without possessing relevant data. — We claim that policymakers’ positive depiction of platform labour serves towards social and institutional stabilisation of technoprecarious – migrant – labour as a desired and inescapable future of work within the Danish labour market.“
#3 As a big fan of Malka Older’s Centenal Cycle trilogy, I was happy to discover her new books, set in a human colony in the atmosphere of Jupiter, and quite enjoyed them over the holiday!
#4 For more imaginative reading to make it through the dark parts of winter, I also picked up Katherine Rundell’s book Impossible Creatures. It’s written for young audiences but don’t let that stop you.
-A