BEYOND THE TECHNOSUPERCRIP: NEURO-BODY-DIVERGENCE AS A POLITICAL SPACE IN THE CRIPBORG PARADIGM

Marianna Piccioli, Angela Magnanini, Marco D'Onofrio, Chiara Pannone

Abstract


The paper examines AI and social robotics through Disability Studies, criticizing the risk of the technosupercrip: a technologically enhanced body celebrated for performance rather than true inclusion. In sport, this risk increases because performance can reinforce the ideal of a normative “superhuman” body. The paper therefore proposes rethinking the cripborg paradigm: human-machine hybridization should not mean adapting to norms, but valuing limitation, bodily and neurological diversity, and non-classifiable identities. Technology should not “cure” difference, but legitimize plural ways of existing.

Keywords


Neuro-body-divergence; Cyborgification; Cripborg paradigm; Human-machine hybridization; Social robotics

Full Text:

PDF PDF

References


Berger, R. J. (2008). Disability and the dedicated wheelchair athlete: Beyond the “supercrip” critique. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 37(6), 647–678. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241607309893

Bocci, F., & Straniero, A. M. (2020). Altri corpi. Visioni e analisi delle rappresentazioni della (e incursioni sulla) disabilità e diversità (Vol. 10). Roma TrE-Press. https://doi.org/10.13134/979-12-80060-65-5

Brittain, I. (2016). The Paralympic Games explained (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Clynes, M. E., & Kline, N. S. (1960). Cyborgs and space. Astronautics, 5(9), 26–27, 74–76.

Haraway, D. J. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. Routledge.

Hardin, M., & Hardin, B. (2004). The “supercrip” in sport media: Wheelchair athletes discuss hegemony’s disabled hero. Sociology of Sport Online, 7(1).

Howe, P. D. (2008). The cultural politics of the Paralympic movement: Through an anthropological lens. Routledge.

Howe, P. D. (2011). Cyborg and supercrip: The Paralympics technology and the (dis)empowerment of disabled athletes. Sociology, 45(5), 868–882. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511413421

Howe, P. D., & Silva, C. F. (2017). The cyborgification of Paralympic sport. Movement & Sport Sciences – Science & Motricité, 97(3), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.1051/sm/2017013

Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Indiana University Press.

Mayring, P. (2021). Qualitative content analysis: A step-by-step guide.

Milani Comparetti, A. (1980). La riabilitazione riabilitata. Salute e territorio, 10, 22-24.

Mitchell, D. T., & Snyder, S. L. (2000). Narrative prosthesis: Disability and the dependencies of discourse. University of Michigan Press.

Monceri, F. (2017). Oltre l’identità stabilita: Considerazioni su sessualità, disabilità e invecchiamento. Edizioni ETS.

Monceri, F. (A cura di). (2009). Sull’orlo del futuro: Ripensare il post-umano. Edizioni ETS.

Montalti, C. (2021). Tecnologie assistive, disabilità e dinamiche di potere: Per una critica del modello emancipatorio. Rivista Internazionale di Studi Critici sulla Disabilità, 1(2), 45–62.

Montalti, C. (2025). Prospettive cyborg sulla disabilità: Tecnologie, relazioni di cura e futuri culturali. DeriveApprodi.

Moser, I. (2006). Disability and the promises of technology: Technology, subjectivity and embodiment within an order of the normal. Information, Communication & Society, 9(3), 373–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180600751348

Piccioli, M. (2020). Relational Model e Cultural Model come incontro tra integrazione e inclusione. Un’occasione di sviluppo per la scuola italiana. Edizioni ETS.

Purdue, D. E., & Howe, P. D. (2012). See the sport, not the disability: Exploring the Paralympic paradox. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 4(2), 189–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2012.685102

Shakespeare, T. (2014). Disability rights and wrongs revisited (2nd ed.). Routledge. (Trad. it. Disabilità e società. Diritti, falsi miti, percezioni sociali, Erickson, Trento, 2017).

Silva, C. F., & Howe, P. D. (2012). The (in)validity of supercrip representation of Paralympian athletes. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 36(2), 174–194.

Wolbring, G. (2024). From supercrip to techno-supercrip. Current Issues in Sport Science, 9(1), 004. https://doi.org/10.36950/2023.3ciss007




DOI: https://doi.org/10.32043/gsd.v10i3.1826

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 ITALIAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH EDUCATION, SPORT AND INCLUSIVE DIDACTICS

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Italian Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics 

Publisher: Cares srl – REN Press (since 2026). Previously published by Gaia srl – Edizioni Universitarie Romane (2017–2025).

ISSN: 2532-3296 E-ISSN: 3103-5744