Paper short abstract:

Pluralism is a concept that contests the hegemonic global North narrative about the future role of technology in agriculture. The concept can maintain diversity in the future of farming and embed plural values of care, knowledge and worldviews in technology design and development.

Paper long abstract:

Pluralism is proposed as a concept that contests the hegemonic global North narrative about the future role of technology in agriculture. Cultural pluralism has been explored by global South scholars to facilitate the integration of indigenous and other excluded groups to the political and educational spaces. In particular, cultural pluralism has been used to challenge the contribution of technology to society. From a pluralistic perspective, technology is not viewed as something that separates the modern Western world (the progress) from pre-modern societies but as artefacts that reflect the diversity of ways in which we do things in different cultural contexts. We find pluralism as a valuable concept to contest the techno-centric narrative, which has dominated agriculture so far and is now shaping the future of agriculture towards emergent technologies such as robotisation. The concept could embrace the rich evidence that agrarian historians and STS scholars discussing past technological transformations have generated. Moreover, it can be a way to respond to the current concerns about the future impacts of emerging technologies. Pluralism in the narratives about the future of agriculture maintains diversity in agriculture's future pathways (even in which technologies such as robots are not included). The concept of technological pluralism is discussed further to explore alternative future roles of robots conceived in plural values of care, knowledge and worldviews. This concept could also help advance the design and development of agricultural robots through alternative technological pathways that integrate the diversity of cultural views, knowledge, and ethical values in agriculture worldwide.