Discourses on Human Enhancement and Techological Innovation at Work: Bridging Disciplines for a Critical Understanding

“Enhancing technologies” at work are designed to overcome human possibilities in order to improve performance. Apparently neutral, the concept informs a discursive and organizational order, with ambiguous results. The risk in fact is to legitimate a reductionist view on the “human” at work, overlooking a number of ethical and psycho-social challenges. Research question: In the study, we explore how the human enhancement idea is discursively crafted within the debate on technological innovation in the air traffic control field. More specifically, the innovation taken into account is the implementation of remote control towers technology (RCT), which is under study in Europe. Design: The study followed a critical discourse analysis approach, based on in-depth interviews to key informants and document analysis of scientific reports on RCT trials. Sample: 10 key-informants involved in RCT research and develompent and more than 30 documents (research reports, conference proceedings and position papers in the last 5 years) related to the RCT adoption and implementation. Data collection and analysis: Psychologists, sociologists and legal scientists have dialogued on the data, to explore how the enhancement concept is crafted and underlined by specific assumptions on human power and responsibility with regard to technology. Results: The results generate insights on how social and ethical issues are shaped, contested or overlooked in the RTC implementation debate. The challenges faced by researchers in dealing with technological innovation issues by bridging their disciplinary fields are also finally discussed.