CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Agent, Assembled: The Relational and Technical Anatomy of Social Robots
Editor: Jaime Banks, Syracuse University
Publisher: Peter Lang, Digital Formations Series
https://bit.ly/AgentAssembled
Chapter proposals due by: November 30, 2022
Agent, Assembled will be a curated volume that unpacks the complexity of social robots – not as monoliths but as sociotechnical assemblages, pieced together from embodied features like gender cues and anthropomorphic containers to technical features like learning systems and sensors. Each chapter will account for the empirical, theoretical, philosophical, and/or critical understandings of very discrete robot components or dimensions. Altogether, the chapters will contribute to an argument for engaging robotic agents as assemblages as we work to understand how and why they matter in human experience and in society at large.
The objectives of the book are to:
- Frame social robots as sociotechnical assemblages, and discuss the implications of this framing for scientific inquiry, industry practices, and general literacy;
- Identify and explain the social and technological components of social robots and what scientific literature reveals about how they are experienced;
- Paint a comprehensive picture about how and why social robots matter in everyday life and contemporary culture, in relation to the discrete and assembled components;
- Offer challenges, possibilities, and new directions for researching, designing, developing, deploying, regulating, engaging, and otherwise orienting ourselves in relation to social robots.
Please read the complete details below.
Chapter proposals are due by November 30, 2022.
CHAPTER REQUIREMENTS:
This volume’s format will ‘dissect’ social robots into their constitutive components. To this end, the book will have 30 short chapters (15 social in nature, 15 technical in nature) of 3,000-3,500 words apiece (including references). The aim of these chapters is to synthesize existing empirical/theoretical/philosophical literature with popular discourses, futurist musings, and even fictions to highlight the potential for the discrete dimensions of robots to influence human experiences and functioning. Each chapter must focus on a pair of related but discrete dimensions of social robots and must include the following:
- Focus: What is the big deal? A clear thesis as to why the designated robot components matter as a unique object of study/consideration, especially in terms of understanding how robots, broadly, matter in everyday life and contemporary culture. This thesis should be concrete, but ideally still applicable across various social and functional contexts.
- Inform: What is the state of the art/science/practice? In the first half (approximately), a review of key empirical, theoretical, popular, philosophical, historical, critical, and/or practical/industry literatures to outline current understandings of the paired components.
- Provoke: What is next? In the second half (approximately), offer readers something new – for instance, what are the social and/or technological ‘futures’ of these robot components? What are the gaps in scientific, industry, and popular understanding of the components? How might we need to reframe examinations or experiences of the components? Through what novel lens should we examine the components?
Audience and style: Agent, Assembled is intended as a “crossover” book – primarily attending to interests of academics in the fields of human-machine communication, human-computer interaction, engineering and computer science, media studies, STS, and digital and popular culture, but accessible enough for non-expert professionals and lay readers. Chapters should employ an accessible, third-person voice (remembering that intended audiences include students, industry professionals, and non-expert readers in addition to academics).
*DRAFT* TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The following is a draft ToC to illustrate the vision for the volume. Please note that where chapters have committed authors, those chapter topics/authors are firm and are not open to submission. Otherwise, these topics are not set in stone! They are only meant to suggest directions. The project is very open to submission of proposals outside of these areas – please feel welcome to propose additional topics. New proposals would ideally come in the form of a related pair of ‘components’ and would lean toward more granular/discrete kinds of social or technological features, components, or mechanisms.
Introduction: Social Robots as Assemblages
Part I: The Relational
These components contribute to perceptions that the robot is a social agent. They are usually the dimensions of the machine that are representative of human embodiment, behavior, experience, interactions, or structures. They support dynamics of relationality through suggestions of animacy, agency, interactivity, personhood, patiency, or any other property by which a robot may be said to be ‘social.’
Chapter 1: Life & Death – Indicators of Animacy [committed author]
Chapter 2: Meat & Muscles – Structures of (Dis)Embodiment
Chapter 3: Race & Gender – A Tensioned Kind
Chapter 4: Eyes & Mouth – Giving Face Time
Chapter 5: Voice & Text – Talking the Talk
Chapter 6: Movement & Proxemics – The Space Between
Chapter 7: Names & Labels – Assigned and Emerging Identities
Chapter 8: Emojis & Lag – Nonverbals in Action
Chapter 9: Images & Frames – Making Space for the Non-Embodied
Chapter 10: Space & Time – Machines in Context
Chapter 11: Mind & Morality – The Ghost in the Shell
Chapter 12: Authority and Affinity – Heuristics in Interaction
Chapter 13: Play & Positioning – Roles of Engagement
Chapter 14: Narratives & Lore – Narratives that Humanize [committed author]
Chapter 15: Cosplay & Cohabitation – Intimate Engagements
Part II: The Technological
These agent components are those that emerge principally from their digital and physical manifestations as technologies – as a collection of (im)material elements functioning in coordination. They operationally support the agent’s interactivity with human interlocutors, with other machines, and with the environment.
Chapter 16: Models & Simulation – In and Out of the Loop
Chapter 17: Data & Configuration – Persistence of Memory
Chapter 18: Language & Learning – Meaning-Making Processes
Chapter 19: Searching and Solving – From Premise to Conclusion
Chapter 20: Glitches & Errors – Bugs on the Windshield
Chapter 21: Networks & Connectivity – Modes of Access
Chapter 22: Sensors & Cameras – Apprehending the World
Chapter 23: Motors & Actuators – Degrees of Freedom
Chapter 24: Malleability & Mimicry – The Soft in Action
Chapter 25: Screens & Graphics – Communication Affordances
Chapter 26: Mobility & Physics – Navigating Forms
Chapter 27: Power & Control – Driving Machine Action
Chapter 28: Effectors and Effects – Machine Work in the Wild
Chapter 29: Integration & Interoperability – Social and Functional Assimilation
Chapter 30: Laws & Access – Rights of the Agent [committed author]
PUBLICATION INFORMATION:
The volume will be published by Peter Lang Publishing, as part of the Digital Formations Series (series editor: Steve Jones).
ANTICIPATED PUBLISHING TIMELINE:
The following is an anticipated timeline for completion of the project:
- November 30, 2022: Chapter proposals due
- January 31, 2023 (at latest): Proposal decisions returned to authors
- March 31 – April 30, 2023: Chapter first drafts due
- April 30 – May 31, 2023: Initial editorial review returned to authors
- July 2023: Possible author symposium to workshop chapters (pending funding)
- August 31 – October 31, 2023: Chapter revisions due
- December 31, 2023: Final manuscript edits complete; submission to publisher
- 2024 TBD by publisher: Book release
PROPOSAL ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:
Interested authors should prepare a ~250-300-word abstract outlining the thesis, defining the components, offering key supporting points from appropriate literatures, and summarizing the “something new” (as described above in ‘requirements’) you’d like to offer in your chapter. Submissions are open to any of the available topics listed in the draft ToC above, or proposals may be made for additional topics so long as they constitute discrete components of social robots. Submissions will be evaluated based on alignment with outlined requirements, potential to contribute to the overarching argument, and quality of writing. University-affiliated scholars, industry experts, independent scholars, graduate students, practitioners, and other experts/thinkers in any domain of social robotics (broadly construed) are encouraged to submit. Submissions should be made via email to Jaime Banks at banks@syr.edu
by November 30, 2022.
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