Eurograd message

                Dear STS colleagues,

This is an invitation for interested parties to submit an abstract for the panel I am organizing entitled “Social Innovation for addressing challenges in biomedicine and pharmaceutical R&D”  for abstracts for the upcoming STS Conference in Graz, Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies, held from May 5–7.

As the STS Conference Graz 2025 will be a hybrid event, the fee categories differ, depending on whether you participate in person in Graz or online.

Panel description is below, as is the submission procedure.

Submission Deadline: 20 January 2025.
Abstracts have to be submitted online

Panel: Social Innovation for addressing challenges in biomedicine and pharmaceutical R&D

Panel Description: Social innovation is a longstanding area of activism and scholarship that has worked to address the needs of vulnerable populations, through user-driven collaborative activities carried out with-and for such populations. Rather than just products, innovation here also includes new kinds of “processes or programs that profoundly change the basic routines, resource and authority flows, or beliefs of the social system in which the innovation occurs” (Westley and Antadze, 2010). While there is some history of social innovation in the provision of healthcare services particularly in the Global South (Gardner, Acharya, & Yach, 2007; Srinivas, Yang, Shrestha, et al. 2020), one area in which there is a noticeable absence in the social innovation literature is in the production of biomedical research and development (R&D). Similarly, in STS there is a considerable track record in highlighting injustices and vulnerabilities in biomedicine (Clarke, Mamo, Foskett et al., eds. 2010), as well as facilitating participation in (Felt & Fochler, 2010) and intervening in biomedical practices (Zuiderent-Jerak & Jensen, 2007). This has taken the forms of ELSI / ELSA work in genomic (Zwart & Nelis, 2009), responsible research and innovation (Demers-Payette, Lehoux, & Daudelin, 2016; Felt, 2017), as well as feminist (Clarke, 2021) and post-colonial STS (Seth, 2009) scholarship. However, there seems to be an absence of mobilizing social innovation scholarship and activism towards biomedical R&D. One recent example of work that engages directly with both bodies of scholarship is that of “social pharmaceutical innovation”, particularly in the area of rare diseases (Douglas, Aith, Boon et al., 2022). Significant problems within the dominant pharmaceutical innovation model are leading to lack of available treatments, hindered access processes and very high prices for treatment. Social pharmaceutical innovation seeks to understand and support initiatives that are addressing these issues outside of the dominant profit-driven innovation model. This session invites papers that engage with -or in- forms of social innovation in biomedicine writ large, and in the bio-pharmaceutical sector specifically.

Papers may address the following topics and more:

- Innovation challenges in biomedical R&D producing inequities or injustices
- Use of social innovation to address challenges in biomedicine
- Other forms of interventions for the production of safe and fair biomedicines
- Specific challenges in pharmaceutical innovation
- Ways forward in addressing specific challenges in pharmaceutical innovation
- Productive tensions between social innovation and STS

List of references below.


  *   Abstracts must be submitted in English; please note that the working language of the conference is English as well.
  *   400 to 600 words, max. 5 keywords, and the Abstract with authors’ contact details should be submitted by using the online form.
  *   Please indicate in the online form the session number, your abstract should belong to
  *   Please choose a short, concise title.
  *   The Abstract should include brief statements on previous research in the field, the purpose of your research/work and the methods applied. Furthermore, please outline your results and conclusions that can be drawn on this basis.
  *   The relevance of the contribution to the field of STS should be made apparent, ideally by pointing out how it relates to earlier results and theorizing in STS.
  *   No reference to the authors’ institutions should be included in the body of the Abstract. Where applicable, literature references should be provided at the end of the Abstract.


Looking forward to your submission.

Conor Douglas

Associate Professor
Department of Science, Technology & Society, Faculty of Science
307 Bethune College |York University |  4700 Keele St.   | Toronto ON, Canada M3J 1P3
Tel: 416.736.2100 extension 30104 | cd512@yorku.ca | https://www.yorku.ca/science/profiles/faculty/conor-douglas/
Project Leader - Social Pharmaceutical Innovation: https://www.socialpharmaceuticalinnovation.org/


Works Cited
Clarke, A. E. (2021). (Feminist) STS and autobiography: Early inspirations, current concerns. Science as Culture, 30(1), 26-43.

Clarke, A. E., Mamo, L., Fosket, J. R., Fishman, J. R., & Shim, J. K. (Eds.). (2010). Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv125jk5c

Demers-Payette, O., Lehoux, P., & Daudelin, G. (2016). Responsible research and innovation: a productive model for the future of medical innovation. Journal of Responsible Innovation, 3(3), 188-208.

Douglas, C. M., Aith, F., Boon, W., de Neiva Borba, M., Doganova, L., Grunebaum, S., ... & Kleinhout-Vliek, T. (2022). Social pharmaceutical innovation and alternative forms of research, development and deployment for drugs for rare diseases. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, 17(1), 344.

Felt, U., & Fochler, M. (2010). Machineries for making publics: Inscribing and de-scribing publics in public engagement. Minerva, 48, 219-238.

Gardner, C. A., Acharya, T., & Yach, D. (2007). Technological and social innovation: a unifying new paradigm for global health. Health Affairs, 26(4), 1052-1061.

Seth, S. (2009). Putting knowledge in its place: science, colonialism, and the postcolonial. Postcolonial studies, 12(4), 373-388.

Srinivas, M. L., Yang, E. J., Shrestha, P., Wu, D., Peeling, R. W., & Tucker, J. D. (2020). Social innovation in diagnostics: three case studies. Infectious diseases of poverty, 9, 1-7. 42.

Westley F, Antadze N. Making a difference: Strategies for scaling social innovation for greater impact. Innovation Journal. 2010;15(2).

Zuiderent-Jerak, T., & Bruun Jensen, C. (2007). Editorial introduction: Unpacking ‘intervention’ in science and technology studies. Science as Culture, 16(3), 227-235.

Zwart, H., & Nelis, A. (2009). What is ELSA genomics?. EMBO reports, 10(6), 540-544.
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