Introduction: Caring media futures

Abstract

Drawing on cultural studies’ strong history in challenging power relationships and highlighting the importance of the everyday for meaning and insights, this special issue calls for care to be taken seriously – particularly in shifting and diversifying cultural imaginaries of future work, ageing, life, and death. Published in the context of a global pandemic, in which contexts of care visibly collapsed or overlapped, it is a timely focus. As this special issue shows, the rapid increase of ageing populations has brought explorations of the potential of new technological services involving artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation. These forms of non-human care are increasingly normalized and practised through wearable safety devices, mobile phones, apps, robots, virtual reality, and digitally assisted interactions with animals. All of these operate as caregiving agencies intended to support, replace, and enhance human-to-human labours of care.