<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Transformations cfp Social Robots: Human-machine configurations</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><B>CFP: Issue 29<BR>
</B><BR>
Social Robots: Human-machine configurations<BR>
<BR>
<B>Human-machine relationships are being transfor</B>med by robots increasingly performing social roles such as teachers, carers and companions. This arrival of social robots is challenging understandings of human-machine relationships and generating diverse aesthetic, ethical and political debates. Matters of interest include asymmetries in human-robot relationships, the co-constitution of humans and robots, the place of robot labour, the significance of machine embodiment, and accounts of human-robot communication, among other topics. Commonly, the ways in which social and cultural norms shape social robotics do not receive enough critical scrutiny.<BR>
<BR>
This special issue of Transformations examines the ways in which human-machine relationships are configured in social robotics. It seeks contributions that recognise that contemporary robotics produces and circulates cultural values, and consider how social robots continue and diverge from other expressive and communicative practices. In so doing it tests the scope and limits of the category of social robotics.<BR>
<BR>
We invite submissions in the areas of philosophy, critical, cultural and media studies, science and technology studies, and creative arts research. Possible topics include:<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><UL><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>emotional relationships between humans and robots
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>ideas of the human circulated by robotics
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>connections between fictional and non-fictional robots
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>robotic cultures and cultures of robotics
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>social robots as mediation
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>agency in human-machine assemblages
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>the machine as Other
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>robotic artworks as social robots
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>the embedding of normativity in social robots
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>affective robotic labour
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><LI><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'>the representation of robots and robotics in cultural texts and artworks<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></UL><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'><BR>
Abstracts (200-500 words) due 15 February 2016 with a view to submit by 23 May 2016.<BR>
<BR>
Abstracts should be forwarded to: <a href="editor@transformationsjournal.org">editor@transformationsjournal.org</a><BR>
<BR>
View Transformations online: <a href="http://www">http://www</a>.<FONT COLOR="#0432FF">transformationsjournal.org/journa</FONT>l<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>