Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Organization Studies, 36 (5), 2015, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2015 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Organization Studies page: http://oss.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Mors ex Machina
T2 - technology, embodiment and the organization of destruction
AU - Bloomfield, B. P.
AU - Vurdubakis, T.
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Organization Studies, 36 (5), 2015, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2015 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Organization Studies page: http://oss.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/
PY - 2015/5
Y1 - 2015/5
N2 - The article argues that the organization of destruction requires the same level of attention that organization studies have typically accorded to the organization of production. Taking as its starting point recent debates in the field concerning the embodied character of organizational ethics, the present paper sets out to explore what we might call the contemporary ‘automation of warfare’ by focusing on the proposed deployment of autonomous robots capable of exercising lethal force while governed by the ‘ethical constraints’ dictated by the Laws of War. Acknowledging the ‘technical’ challenges inherent in the development of ‘ethical warrior robots’, we propose that the importance of such technological fixes for the management of human conflict primarily lies not in their status as (potentially) functional artefacts but rather in their role as material expressions of the moral and philosophical conflicts haunting Atlantic (post?)modernity.
AB - The article argues that the organization of destruction requires the same level of attention that organization studies have typically accorded to the organization of production. Taking as its starting point recent debates in the field concerning the embodied character of organizational ethics, the present paper sets out to explore what we might call the contemporary ‘automation of warfare’ by focusing on the proposed deployment of autonomous robots capable of exercising lethal force while governed by the ‘ethical constraints’ dictated by the Laws of War. Acknowledging the ‘technical’ challenges inherent in the development of ‘ethical warrior robots’, we propose that the importance of such technological fixes for the management of human conflict primarily lies not in their status as (potentially) functional artefacts but rather in their role as material expressions of the moral and philosophical conflicts haunting Atlantic (post?)modernity.
KW - embodiment
KW - ethics
KW - science and technology studies (STS)
KW - technology
KW - theoretical perspectives
U2 - 10.1177/0170840614556922
DO - 10.1177/0170840614556922
M3 - Journal article
VL - 36
SP - 621
EP - 641
JO - Organization Studies
JF - Organization Studies
SN - 0170-8406
IS - 5
ER -