Jaana Parviainen
Papers
12
Total Citations
327
H-Index
8
About
Jaana Parviainen is a Finnish philosopher and interdisciplinary researcher whose work sits at the intersection of social robotics, care ethics, and phenomenology of the body. Her scholarship critically examines how robotic technologies are imagined, designed, and deployed — particularly in eldercare and healthcare contexts — interrogating the gap between utopian visions and practical realities. Her most cited work, "The Political Choreography of the Sophia Robot" (2020, 160 citations), offers a penetrating critique of how humanoid robots are marketed and performed for public audiences, challenging simplistic narratives around robot citizenship and AI potential. Across multiple studies, Parviainen probes the ethical dimensions of human-robot interaction, asking how embodiment, vulnerability, and human touch factor into care relationships increasingly mediated by machines. Drawing on Husserlian phenomenology, she develops nuanced frameworks for understanding how robots simulate aliveness and elicit emotional responses in users. Her contributions to Finnish robotics policy, including a national roadmap for robotics in care services, demonstrate real-world impact beyond academia. With work spanning affective robotics, kinetic mobility in aging populations, and novel conceptual categories like "abiozoomorphism," Parviainen consistently pushes both philosophical and policy conversations forward in this rapidly evolving field.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5Robots and Human Touch in Care: Desirable and Non-desirable Robot Assistance15 citations · 2018
- 6
- 7The Use of Affective Care Robots Calls Forth Value-based Consideration13 citations · 2020
- 8Robotics in Care Services : A Finnish Roadmap10 citations · 2017
- 9
- 10