Drones, Vertical Mediation, and the Targeted Class

Abstract

As the United stAtes hAs wAged drone wArs in places around the world over the past decade, a new consumer market for drones has emerged. Drones suddenly have a softer, neoliberal side. No longer only used solely for military reconnaissance and targeted killing, drones are increasingly being used by disaster relief specialists, real estate agents, Hollywood production crews, fire fighters, police units, and journalists. Given the expanding array of potential drone applications, how are we to think about this military technology from a poststructuralist feminist perspective? Does the drone import militarization into everyday life by virtue of its seepage into so many different sectors (policing, reporting, property speculation, public safety, media culture)? Or, do the multifarious uses of drones destabilize its militaristic origins and open up the technology to new kinds of contestations and experiences? Despite decades of feminist research on science, technology, and militarization, only a handful of recently published drone-related articles explicitly engage with feminist epistemologies. 1 Crucially, some of this

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