Degrees of Freedom
On Robotics and Social Justice
$129.30
- Paperback
336 pages
- Release Date
6 January 2026
Summary
In Degrees of Freedom, Tom Williams explores critical questions at the intersection of robotics and social justice. He considers the ways in which roboticists design their robots’ appearance, how robots think and act, how robots perceive people, and the domains into which robots are deployed. The book highlights not only the ways roboticists tend to reinforce white patriarchal power structures but also how roboticists might instead subvert those power structures by applying theories …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780262554022 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 026255402X |
| Author: | Tom Williams |
| Publisher: | MIT Press Ltd |
| Imprint: | MIT Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 336 |
| Release Date: | 6 January 2026 |
| Weight: | 369g |
| Dimensions: | 229mm x 152mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
ENDORSEMENTS
“Working from within the belly of the beast, Williams offers insights from the humanities and social sciences, especially critical social theory, to imagine an equitable robotic future. True to an engineering ethos of ’doing better,’ this book both explores the foundational aspects of power that invisibly shape robot design and suggests how to build robots better suited for advancing social justice.”
—Ericka Johnson, Professor of Gender and Society, Linköping University, Sweden
“Degrees of Freedom is a perfect example of how transgressing the boundaries of hegemonic computing epistemologies better informs our collective understanding of not only how societal oppressions are replicated or exacerbated by robotics but also why the eradication of these harms is necessary and possible for a more just society. It’s this transgression that makes this book a must-read for scholars, professionals, students, and activists whose work creates, examines, or uses robots.”
—Nicki Washington, Cue Family Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, Duke University
About The Author
Tom Williams
Tom Williams is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines, where he directs the Mines Interactive Robotics Research Lab. He has received Early Career awards from NSF, NASA, and AFOSR.
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