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  • Published: 6 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9780262554022
  • Imprint: MIT Press Academic
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $160.00

Degrees of Freedom

On Robotics and Social Justice

  • Tom Williams



Why the field of robotics tends to reinforce white patriarchal systems of power—and how roboticists can work to change these systems.

Why the field of robotics tends to reinforce white patriarchal systems of power—and how roboticists can work to change these systems.

In Degrees of Freedom, Tom Williams explores critical questions at the intersection of robotics and social justice. He considers the ways in which roboticists design their robots’ appearance, how robots think and act, how robots perceive people, and the domains into which robots are deployed. The book highlights not only the ways roboticists tend to reinforce white patriarchal power structures, but also how roboticists might instead subvert those power structures by applying theories and methods from a diverse range of fields.

Drawing on computer science; history and politics; law, criminology, and sociology; feminist, ethnic, and Black studies; literary and media studies; and social, moral, and cognitive psychology, the book connects questions of robot design with larger abolitionist movements by presenting a vision for a more socially just future of robotics.

  • Published: 6 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9780262554022
  • Imprint: MIT Press Academic
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $160.00

Praise for Degrees of Freedom

"A leader of a new generation of researchers, Tom Williams fully understands the complex ways in which humans respond to robots. He studies how people can be inspired and elevated by the opportunities that robotics provides but also how they can be diminished by the threats robots pose." --Bertram Malle, Brown University

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