This paper focuses on rehabilitation technology, more specifically robotic gait training conducted with a device called ‘Lokomat’ and its impact on the reproduction of bodily normality within the Turkish context. It draws upon an ethnographic study carried out in a major Turkish rehabilitation hospital and the analysis of the Lokomat's media representation in a health-related television programme. Interviews were conducted with 42 persons (11 medical staff, 2 non-medical staff, and 20 current and 9 former patients). The paper argues that the use of technology is shaped by the relevant sociocultural background. This background comprises both the specificities of the Turkish context more generally – such as its especially unwelcoming environment to the disabled body – and the discourses on the Lokomat more specifically, which create a miracle image of this device as facilitating walking. Thus, the Lokomat's presence deepens the normal/abnormal divide and reproduces it as walking/non-walking.
Rehabilitation technology and the reproduction of bodily normality: a critical analysis of robotic gait training in Turkey
2016-11-04
10.1080/15017419.2015.1114964
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research; Vol 18, No 4 (2016); 343-353 ; 1745-3011
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
DDC: | 629 |
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