Eurograd message

                ***DEADLINE NOW EXTENDED TO 20TH APRIL***
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<br>
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<br>
<br>
<br>*Call for Papers*
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<br>
<br>*The Changing Political Economy of Research & Innovation (CPERI)*
<br>
<br>*6th Annual International Workshop, Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th July 2018
<br>(preceeding EASST)*
<br>
<br>*Institute for Social Futures, Lancaster University, UK*
<br>
<br>We cordially invite submissions to the 6th CPERI workshop, following
<br>previous events at Lancaster (2012), Toronto (2013), San Diego (2015),
<br>Liège (2016) and Boston (2017).  CPERI is a unique global forum for the
<br>exploration of scholarship regarding the *political economy of research &
<br>innovation* (R&I), and hence at the intersection of STS, political economy
<br>and multiple other cognate disciplines, including geography,  sociology,
<br>politics, law, education, medicine, engineering, computing &
<br>philosophy.  The workshop series is dedicated to cultivating a growing
<br>community of committed and engaged international scholars of the political
<br>economy of R&I who will continue to build on their CPERI connections at
<br>subsequent workshops and conferences, and through collaboration on
<br>research.  We aim to bring this crucial but neglected issue more centrally
<br>to major conferences in adjacent fields, where it remains overlooked.  With
<br>these goals in mind, and to assist attendance from as diverse a group as
<br>possible, the workshop is also being held *directly before the EASST
<br>Conference 2018, also in Lancaster*. Attendance is free.
<br>
<br>Our theme for 2018 is:
<br>
<br>*Making & Doing Technoscientific Futures Better*
<br>
<br>*Keynote speakers:*
<br>
<br>*Professor Susan Robertson*
<br>* (Cambridge) on “the
<br>University in an age of platform capitalism”*
<br>
<br>*Dr Mark Carrigan* * (Cambridge) on “Securing
<br>public knowledge amidst the epistemic chaos of platform capitalism?”*
<br>
<br>[*Further keynote speakers for the event will be confirmed shortly.*]
<br>
<br>There is no shortage of scholarship identifying the profound challenges of
<br>contemporary techno-scientific lifeworlds, whether regarding the
<br>Anthropocene (Hamilton 2017, Bonneuil & Fressoz 2016), emergence of post-
<br>(or even trans-) human ‘digital disruptive innovation’ (Harari 2016,
<br>Lanier
<br>2017), or their conjunction in the emergent ‘technosphere’ (e.g. Haff
<br>2016,
<br>Szerszynski 2017).  Meanwhile, and not unrelated, public spheres (viz.
<br>CPERI 2016, Liège) continue to be upended and turbulently transformed as
<br>digital social media, and potentially their deepening percolation into
<br>material life, unleashes social division, economic inequality and ‘culture
<br>wars’ polarization.  Indeed, 2017 was the year in which a new
<br>‘reasonable’
<br>or ‘respectable’ declinism regarding ‘civilization’ (often identified
<br>with
<br>Western and/or liberal democracy) went mainstream (Luce 2017, Reich 2017,
<br>King 2017, Cf Mishra 2017).
<br>
<br>Techno-science, and thereby the research and innovation (R&I) from which it
<br>hails, plays a crucial role in all these narratives, whether optimistic and
<br>utopian or pessimistic and dystopian. Indeed, the zeitgeist of doom and
<br>incipient barbarism raises with renewed urgency long-standing but
<br>fundamental, ‘big’ questions about the crucial role of science and
<br>technology and innovation – and, crucially, education – in the evolution
<br>and formation of ‘civilizations’ and stable, thriving societies (e.g.
<br>Mumford 2010, Mauss 2006, Beinhocker 2007).  With digital social media,
<br>built on privately-owned and deliberately addictive platforms, parsing up
<br>the public sphere, are there even socio-technical grounds any longer for a
<br>single, shared (if not ‘objective’) body of knowledge that both binds a
<br>society together and is itself collaboratively developed and disseminated
<br>by its R&I and educational institutions?
<br>
<br>To counter this downward dynamic meaningfully, however, demands not just
<br>the voluntaristic politico-cultural formulation of new ‘narratives’ or
<br>‘myths’ for society, even as these are undoubtedly both powerful and
<br>crucial.  It also calls for new forms of active engagement with R&I that
<br>both underpin such new narratives with demonstrable practical experiment,
<br>and thereby bring a hands-on, in-depth and appreciative understanding of
<br>current R&I frontiers that can possibly direct these from within, not just
<br>criticize or critique from without. In short, what remains urgently needed
<br>is *(re-)constructive* research that engages with *changing* and
<br>*shaping* emergent
<br>techno-scientific futures in ‘better’ directions.  This encompasses not
<br>only positive agendas and initiatives – e.g. ‘responsible research &
<br>innovation’ – across the systems of socio-technical life – e.g. health
<br>&
<br>medicine, environment, mobility, energy, cities & construction, production
<br>& consumption etc… – but also regarding the institutions and practices of
<br>knowledge production.
<br>
<br>This workshop invites papers at the boundaries of STS and political economy
<br>and/or political ecology, across the spectrum of positions (including
<br>(trans-) feminist, post-human(ist) and non-Western scholarship),
<br>investigating new perspectives on key global challenges in ways that offer
<br>promising approaches to future-oriented action.
<br>
<br>Papers are invited (for 20 minute presentations) on any theme of
<br>contemporary R&I or higher education, insofar as they engage with making
<br>and/or doing technoscientific futures better, for instance:
<br>
<br>*We especially encourage contributions from scholars from Eastern and
<br>Southern Europe and beyond, areas which are not well-represented within our
<br>network, and with whom we would like to foster opportunities for future
<br>collaboration, particularly at the early-to-mid career stage.*
<br>
<br>Papers may address (but are not limited to) the following questions:
<br>
<br>·  The Precarity of the Expert / The Fact
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<br>·  The Politics of Expertise
<br>
<br>·  Values and Valuation in Science, Technology and Medicine
<br>
<br>·  Austerity and the Economics of Innovation
<br>
<br>·  Challenges to Responsible Innovation
<br>
<br>·  The Geography of Alternative Knowledge
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<br>·  Diverse Knowers and Knowing / Feminist Knowledge
<br>
<br>·  Commercial Imperatives in Research and Innovation
<br>
<br>·  Scientific Ambiguity and Environmental Science
<br>
<br>·  Complexity and Scientific Decision-making
<br>
<br>·  Technologically-driven Social/Political Change
<br>
<br>·  Ontological / Epistemic Politics of Emerging Technoscientific Fields
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<br>*Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, and should include the
<br>author’s name, institutional affiliation, and contact information.
<br>Questions and abstracts should be sent via email to *
<br>CPERIWorkshop2018@gmail.com * by 20 April.*
<br>
<br>We gratefully acknowledge the support of Lancaster’s *Institute for Social
<br>Futures* in hosting this event.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>Organizers:
<br>
<br>David Tyfield (Lancaster University)
<br>
<br>Stevie de Saille (Sheffield University)
<br>
<br>Janja Komljenovic (Lancaster University)
<br>
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