Message posted on 09/01/2019

CFp 4S 2019 Open Panel 'Becoming otherwise: STS inroads into techniques of the better self'

                *Apologies for cross-posting*
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<br>*4S 2019 New Orleans (September 4-7, 2019)*
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<br>We would like to kindly invite you to submit an abstract to our open panel.
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<br>Deadline for abstract submission: *Feb 1, 2019.*
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<br>Please let us know if you have any questions!
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<br>The conveners: Sara Bea, Catelijne Coopmans, Else Vogel, Steve Woolgar
<br>(Linköping University, Sweden)
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<br>*                         Becoming Otherwise: *
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<br>*       STS Inroads into Techniques of the Better Self*
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<br>This panel explores the influential landscape of practices of personal
<br>change and radical self-transformation. Practices and techniques for
<br>self-improvement are part of encounters and ways of operating in
<br>healthcare, education, professional development, life coaching, therapy,
<br>spiritual practice, movements like the quantified self, etc. Various
<br>instantiations share a staged ‘will to goodness’ and an emphasis on the
<br>possibility of change, foregrounding an inward turn to learn how to become
<br>a happier, healthier, wiser and sometimes also a wealthier version of
<br>oneself.
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<br>Much existing literature in the social sciences attempts to grapple with
<br>the ubiquity of ’the psy-complex’ by analysing the phenomenon as (yet)
<br>another manifestation of neoliberal regimes. We wish to move away from such
<br>an analytical cul-de-sac and craft stories that do not hinge on unilateral
<br>critique or explanatory frameworks. Drawing on STS’ capacity to re-frame
<br>the issues under study as well as to reinvent itself, we propose to ignite
<br>an STS-inflected examination of ‘techniques of the better self’ that
<br>poses
<br>novel questions, mobilises inventive empirical methods, and opens up
<br>interstitial spaces between critique and justification. What is involved in
<br>lived instances or trajectories of ‘becoming otherwise’? What do these
<br>allow us to learn about, for example, limits, sameness/difference, choice,
<br>care, divisions, subjectivities? In order to address these questions, the
<br>panel encourages a wide range of contributions that attend to the
<br>teaching/learning, using, incorporating or evaluating techniques of the
<br>better self.
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<br>For submission details: https://www.4s2019.org/accepted-open-panels/
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<br>All best,
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<br>Sara Bea
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<br>Postdoctoral researcher
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<br>Linkoping university
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<br>Sweden
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