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About

Michaela Pfadenhauer is a sociologist whose research sits at the compelling intersection of technology, social theory, and everyday life, with a particular focus on social robotics, caregiving, and the sociology of knowledge. She has made significant contributions to understanding how humans form social and emotional bonds with robotic artefacts, interrogating what "sociality" means when one party is artificial. Her most cited work, "Robot Caregiver or Robot-Supported Caregiving?" (2015, 117 citations), critically examines the role of robots in elder care settings, a theme she extends in her ethnographic investigations of socially assistive robots among dementia patients. Drawing on phenomenological and constructivist frameworks, Pfadenhauer explores concepts such as "universal projection" to explain the human tendency to animate non-living objects, and applies phenomenology-based ethnography to uncover deeper experiential truths about human-robot interaction. Her theoretical work also engages with the shift from social to communicative constructivism, questioning how materiality shapes social life. Through both German and English-language scholarship, Pfadenhauer has established herself as a distinctive voice bridging continental social theory and the urgent ethical questions surrounding AI and robotic companions.