TY - CHAP

T1 - Flying Drones as a Gendered Matter of Concern

AU - Waltorp, Karen

AU - Bruun, Maja Hojer

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This chapter sheds light on privacy concerns among the Danish population in relation to increased use of drones. Drones offer an apt illustration of a radically changing technological environment. Related to these developments, institutions and people adapt to, modify, and legislate as it emerges. The study which we draw from in this chapter was a collaboration with the Danish Ministry of Transport, Construction, and Housing Authority. We argue that anthropologists have a role to play in bringing forth overlooked concerns and implications of technological futures as they come about, bringing matters of concern into the public space of democratic debate. Participants in the study instantly related the drone with a camera, and with image-circulation on the Internet. We term this the ‘drone-assemblage’ and show how this instant relating of the drone with a camera makes it a specifically gendered matter of concern. Tying into already existing norms of female modesty and the male gaze, the chapter demonstrates how technology emerges in already existing socio-cultural contexts. As anthropologists we can offer situated critique, point to alternatives that consider overlooked aspects, and frame our relation with technology differently, opening up to imagining technological futures otherwise.

AB - This chapter sheds light on privacy concerns among the Danish population in relation to increased use of drones. Drones offer an apt illustration of a radically changing technological environment. Related to these developments, institutions and people adapt to, modify, and legislate as it emerges. The study which we draw from in this chapter was a collaboration with the Danish Ministry of Transport, Construction, and Housing Authority. We argue that anthropologists have a role to play in bringing forth overlooked concerns and implications of technological futures as they come about, bringing matters of concern into the public space of democratic debate. Participants in the study instantly related the drone with a camera, and with image-circulation on the Internet. We term this the ‘drone-assemblage’ and show how this instant relating of the drone with a camera makes it a specifically gendered matter of concern. Tying into already existing norms of female modesty and the male gaze, the chapter demonstrates how technology emerges in already existing socio-cultural contexts. As anthropologists we can offer situated critique, point to alternatives that consider overlooked aspects, and frame our relation with technology differently, opening up to imagining technological futures otherwise.

U2 - 10.4324/9781003084471-9

DO - 10.4324/9781003084471-9

M3 - Book chapter

BT - An Anthropology of Futures and Technologies

PB - Routledge

ER -