Ethopolitical media: Organizing Assistive Technology, disability and care in the platform society

Abstract

In this paper we prompt a re-reading of Assistive Technology (AT) as a media system that organizes disability in the framework of digital health-care and the platform society. Drawing on disability media studies and organization studies, we investigate how the arrival of big tech and digital platforms in the field of AT reconfigures ways to account for, classify and potentially discriminate against disability. We argue that this new configuration can be explained as a shift from a biopolitical model – oriented toward disability normalization – to an ethopolitical model, oriented toward optimization and health enhancement. In the conclusions, we put forward the concept of ethopolitical media and discuss the implications of this for wider debates in media and cultural studies which deal with the relationship between media, health, and self-care.