Connecting Virtual Bodies: Care in the Specter of Presence

Abstract (English)

As digital technologies increasingly mediate human interactions, the ways in which care is provided, received, and embodied are undergoing profound transformations. This panel explores the anthropological and psychological implications of video-mediated care relationships, focusing on how the body is negotiated, represented, and experienced in the absence of physical co-presence.
From telemedicine consultations to remote psychological support and digital companionship, video technology has become a crucial tool in facilitating intimacy and care across spatial distances. Yet, these mediated interactions raise critical questions: How do caregivers and recipients construct a sense of presence and trust through screens? In what ways do digital interfaces shape the perception of the body and the emotional labor of care? How do cultural and technological factors influence the efficacy and ethics of such interactions?
This panel invites interdisciplinary contributions that address the social, political, cognitive, emotional, and sensory dimensions of video-mediated care. We welcome ethnographic studies, theoretical reflections, and case analyses that examine the role of embodiment, affect, and digital infrastructures in shaping contemporary therapeutic practices. The aim of the panel is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the digital transformation of care.

Building at the edge of psychology, social and medical anthropology, we also aspire to understand how digital care practices challenge and extend traditional theories of embodiment and presence. We seek papers examining how caregivers and care recipients navigate physical absence while maintaining intimate care relationships through digital mediation.

Of particular interest are studies and research investigating:
-The transformation of touch and presence in digital caregiving spaces
-Psychological and anthropological perspectives on virtual care practices
-The role of embodiment in technologically mediated care
-Emerging sensory and emotional vocabularies in digital care
-Virtual reality in therapeutic relationships
-The epistemological tensions between technological care and embodied presence
-Critical analyses of how distance care challenges traditional anthropological understandings of the body
-The transformation of clinical observation and physical examination in virtual settings
-Ethical implications of corporeal absence in care relationships
-Contemporary reinterpretations of technical skills and bodily knowledge in digital care contexts

Contributions from both anthropological and psychological perspectives that engage with questions of corporeal knowledge, digital relation and care practices in an increasingly virtual context will be appreciated.