Workshop-Call: “We are on a mission”. Exploring the role of future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology
Dear colleagues,
Astrid Mager and I are hosting a workshop on the role of future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology.
“We are on a mission”. Exploring the role of future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology
Friday, 27 April 2018
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Berlin, Germany
We are happy that Sally Wyatt (Maastricht University) will give the keynote. See further details of the workshop below.
If you'd like to participate in the workshop, please send an english language abstract (300-500 words) until 2 March 2018.
We encourage you to also submit work-in-progress.
Please contact me off-list if you have further questions!
We're looking forward to your contributions!
Best,
Christian
###
Workshop: “We are on a mission”. Exploring the role of future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology
Friday, 27 April 2018 | HIIG | Französische Straße 9 | 10117 Berlin
Keynote: Sally Wyatt (Maastricht University)
“We are on a mission to build a more open, accessible, and fair financial future, one piece of software at a time” promises the software platform Blockchain. “Imagine if everyone could get around easily and safely, without tired, drunk or distracted driving” envisions the self-driving car company Waymo (a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc.). “The Regulation is an essential step to strengthen citizens’ fundamental rights in the digital age and facilitate business by simplifying rules for companies in the Digital Single Market” claims the European Commission with regard to the General Data Protection Regulation.
These examples show how imaginaries of future societies are enacted to promote digital innovations or legitimate certain modes of internet governance. They illustrate how software providers, tech companies and legislators dig into the rich pool of cultural norms, visions and values to support (or question) digital tools, rules and regulations. Future prospects seem to be central for making decisions in the present.
Themes of the Workshop
What role do future imaginaries perform in the making and governing of present digital technology? How are they mobilised to push or oppose digital innovations such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, blockchain technology or open source/open data projects? How are prospective imaginaries shaped in policy discourses and governance practices regarding networked technology and global data flows? What significance do European specificities have in global technology imaginations? Can different mechanisms be identified in mainstream discourses and counter-narratives? What happens if future scenarios are contested and digital promises become contradictory?
These are central questions to be discussed in our workshop. We welcome theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions that help us understand how the future is mobilized to make and govern digital technology in the present.
The workshop is organized around three central themes:
• Theories and concepts to analytically grasp future visions and their roles in the making and governance of digital technology
• Methods and tools to analyze the nexus between future imaginations and their functions in and impact on policy-making and technology development
• Empirical research and case studies on future imaginaries and their roles in the making and governing of present digital technology
Call for Abstracts
Deadline: 02.03.2018
Submission
We welcome theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions from various disciplines that speak to the themes of the workshop. Please send an English language 300–500 word abstract including a title that describes your contribution to the workshop. We encourage you to submit work-in-progress.
Abstracts are submitted via e-mail to astrid.mager@oeaw.ac.at before 2 March 2018. We will send out notifications on 13 March 2018.
Organisers
Astrid Mager
Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Austrian Academy of Sciences
Elise Richter Fellow, Austrian Science Fund (FWF), project no. V511-G29
astrid.mager@oeaw.ac.at
Christian Katzenbach
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
katzenbach@hiig.de
--
Dr. Christian Katzenbach
Senior Researcher
Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet für Internet und Gesellschaft | Gesellschaftssitz Berlin | Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg | HRB 140911B | USt-ID DE 27/601/54619 | Geschäftsführung: Prof. Dr. Jeanette Hofmann, Prof. Dr. Dr. Ingolf Pernice, Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Schildhauer, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz, Dr. Karina Preiß
___
EASST's Eurograd mailing list
Eurograd (at) lists.easst.net
Unsubscribe or edit subscription options: http://lists.easst.net/listinfo.cgi/eurograd-easst.net
Meet us via https://twitter.com/STSeasst
Report abuses of this list to Eurograd-owner@lists.easst.net
EASST-Eurograd
30 recent messages
- 26/03/2024 Job Offer - Experienced Scientist (m/f/d) in the field of Societal Futures
- 26/03/2024 ACM SIGCHI Sponsored: EICS 2024 Doctoral Consortium Support for Students
- 26/03/2024 Webinar recording now availabe: How to bring creativity to your research journey
- 25/03/2024 Invitation: Deep Tech & Society community
- 25/03/2024 List of books for review in ST&S, 2024 - Call for expressions of interest
- 23/03/2024 CFP: 4th Workshop on Agents and Robots for reliable Engineered Autonomy (AREA 2024)
- 23/03/2024 Reminder - call for abstracts: Foundational Challenges in Cosmological Studies of Black Holes (deadline: 31st March)
- 23/03/2024 FW: Postdoc and research assistant positions in Governance by Infrastructures at Aarhus University
- 21/03/2024 PhD position in STS: Collaboration, innovation and planning in regional energy transitions (NTNU)
- 21/03/2024 I: [CfP] AVI 2024 Workshop "Cyber Security Education for Industry and Academia" (CSE4IA'24)
- 21/03/2024 TATuP 33/1 (2024): new publication on "AI for decision support" online
- 21/03/2024 PhD studentship, Online Healthcare Feedback, Care and Complaint, University of Edinburgh
- 21/03/2024 Call for academic position: Design and Sustainable Futures.
- 21/03/2024 Opening for Professor in Sociology/STS in Gothenburg
- 21/03/2024 Postdoc Quantifying Dutch Historical Sustainability Trade-offs
- 21/03/2024 EASST/4S 2024: Short Story, Flash Fiction, and Poetry Competition - deadline 1 June 2024
- 19/03/2024 Research Sabbaticals (Fellowships) and Working Groups at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS)
- 19/03/2024 Hau of Finance Online Seminar Series - “Mobilizing Capital in Communist Cuba” - Ståle Wig, University of Oslo - 26.03.2024 @ 15h CET
- 19/03/2024 Call for Applications: FELLOWSHIPS at CAPAS 2025-2026
- 19/03/2024 IAS-STS Fellowship Program 2024/25
- 19/03/2024 CfP: T2M Conference Leipzig 23-25 September 2024
- 19/03/2024 Reminder: IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) 2024 -CFP
- 15/03/2024 iHuman Spring 2024 International Guest Seminar Series - The Imperfectly Relatable Robot, with Katherine Harrison (Linköping)
- 15/03/2024 Postdoc position in Networks of Expertise of the green transition - the case of energy islands (ERC-project), Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
- 15/03/2024 The Eighth International Undergraduate Research Conference on Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society (STMS): Registration Open
- 15/03/2024 Extended Call for Submissions: fPET 2024 - Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology, September 17-19, 2024 in Karlsruhe, Germany
- 15/03/2024 Open call pieces EASST Review
- 13/03/2024 Conference Call - Urban Speculations, Lüneburg, 4-6 February 2025
- 13/03/2024 Final Reminder - EURAS 2024
- 13/03/2024 Summer School - STS writing and publishing [Science Studies Symposium in Helsinki]