Babyrobotter og cyborgforældreskab blandt marginaliserede unge

Abstract

The 21st century has been characterised by an accelerating development where social robots are increasingly being used in care- and educa- tional institutions and in social interventions. In recent years, municipalities in Denmark have for instance started using baby simulators in social interventions for marginalised youth eager to become parents. The baby simula- tor is social baby-like robot that is capable of imitating and expressing the same needs as a biological infant, which must be addressed by a caretaker. The purpose of baby simula- tor interventions is to increase marginalised young peoples’ parental competencies, and to prevent that ‘non-qualified’ youth have children. This is done through role plays with the baby simulator, in which participants learn how to perform as “competent” parents. As this indicates, baby simulators, are today used as tools by professionals to guide, monitor and regulate marginalised youths’ performance of parenthood.

This article is based on a qualitative study of baby simulator interventions in Denmark. The article uses Donna Haraway’s concept “cyborg” (1991) to explore how technology, in the form of social baby-like robots, are used to install normative parenthood discourses in the postmodern subject. The article shows how baby simulator interventions are based on the idea that participants’ parental competences can best be tested and developed by inviting these to participate in a serious role play where the baby simulator is constructed as a stand-in for a future biological child. The article explores the strategies used by professionals to get participants to invest and identify with the parental role. Furthermore, it also explores how participants (in)ability to foster emotional bonds with the technological baby-cyborg have implications for the extent to which they believe that interactions with the baby simulator can provide valid insights about how they might perform as parents for a future biological child.