Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement: Unmanned Aviation: Gender, Skill, and the Transformation of Pilot Work

这篇博士论文的改进项目将集中在无人驾驶航空的兴起及其对飞行员的影响。尽管美国的商业飞行员面临着休假和其他形式的经济不安全，但日益增长的无人驾驶飞机民用市场有望为愿意在驾驶舱内交换地面计算机终端的飞行员创造新的机会。这项研究探讨了飞行员工作的虚拟化如何矛盾地产生新形式的体现技能，并探讨了向无人驾驶系统的转变是否标志着历史上男性主导的职业的女性化。研究人群将包括无人驾驶飞行员学员、教员和课程设计者，以及政策制定者和航空航天高管。通用航空飞行员已经成为反对无人驾驶飞机发展的重要来源，这项研究将对他们的价值观、信仰和工作实践进行比较。研究方法将包括直接观察无人驾驶飞行员培训，半结构化访谈，档案研究，以及通用航空飞行员的态度调查。这项研究很重要，因为它将无人驾驶技术的分析扩展到了监视或国家暴力的讨论之外，将它们置于现有的民用航空生态中。在以农业和石油为主的中西部进行这项研究，有助于对农村生计的未来进行理论研究。 该奖项也将有助于科学培养一个有前途的研究生。

This doctoral dissertation improvement project will focus on the rise of unmanned aviation and its implications for what it means to be a pilot. Even as commercial pilots in the United States face furloughs and other forms of economic insecurity, a growing civilian market for unmanned aircraft promises to create new opportunities for pilots willing to trade in their cockpits for ground-based computer terminals. This study examines how the virtualization of pilot work paradoxically produces new forms of embodied skill, and explores whether the shift toward unmanned systems signals the feminization of an historically male-dominated profession.The research will be carried out in a Midwestern state. The study populations will include unmanned pilot trainees, instructors, and curriculum designers, as well as policymakers and aerospace executives. General aviation pilots have emerged as an important source of opposition to unmanned aircraft development, and the study will develop a comparative account of their values, beliefs, and work practices. Research methods will include direct observation of unmanned pilot training, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and an attitudinal survey of general aviation pilots. This research is important because it extends the analysis of unmanned technologies beyond discussions of surveillance or state violence, by situating them within an existing ecology of civilian aviation. Conducting the study in the Midwest, where farming and now oil, dominate the economy, positions it to contribute to theoretical work on the future of rural livelihoods. This award will also contribute to the scientific training of a promising graduate student.