Dear fellow researchers,
we would like to point your attention to a panel session about the
politics of algorithmic governance at next year's Annual STS
Conference in Graz (a very nice place, indeed). The conference
takes place on the 6th and the 7th of May. The deadline for the
abstracts is 21.1.2019.
A key aspect of the ongoing digital transformation of society is the
increasing datafication and quantification of almost all aspects of
life. This realm of “data doubles” gives rise to new modes of
producing and validating knowledge and of establishing epistemic and
thus political authority, enabled by artificially intelligent
computer systems and machines learning from big datasets. As a
consequence, we are witnessing the emergence of new forms of social
coordination, steering and control that are unfolding on the
individual level (as in the quantified self movement), on the
organizational level (as in people analytics) as well as on the
societal level (as in predictive policing and citizen scores). While
technology enthusiasts interpret these trends as an opportunity for
more reactive, more integrated and less bureaucratic forms of
regulation that will ultimately benefit everyone (O’Reilly 2013),
critics warn that humans are reduced to passive data providers in a
new, depoliticized “surveillance capitalism” (Morozov 2014, Zuboff
2018). As the fusion of digital technology and institutions of
public and private governance proceeds, gaining a deeper
understanding of these ambivalences is one of the pressing academic
and practical issues of our time (Yeung 2017).
https://sts-conference.isds.tugraz.at/event/5/page/36-digitalization-of-society
During this session we want to continue the conversation about the
possible contributions of Science, Technology and Society Studies to
this set of questions, debating both concrete empirical cases and
broader theoretical considerations. We invite innovative papers from
all relevant areas that address issues including, but not limited
to, the following:
● Which new forms of algorithmic governance do we observe?
● How do they relate to and interact with existing forms of social
ordering and what sets them apart?
● Do we witness the emergence of new forms of subjectivities and
identities?
● In what ways do algorithmic systems foster or inhibit individuals’
conduct of everyday life, and how are they integrated into daily
routines?
● Do we witness the rise of new types of socio-technical networks
and assemblages?
● When do the new infrastructures of algorithmic governance fail and
which vulnerabilities are responsible for the failures?
● In what ways do individuals and groups apply, cope with, adapt to,
subvert or re-purpose systems of algorithmic governance?
● How can we think about these changes in ways that take seriously
both the material specificity and the social logics of these new
technologies?
● What are the socio-technical imaginaries that give rise to the
various forms of algorithmic governance?
● What is the relationship between data, algorithms and agency, and
what do these forms of algorithmic governance imply for individual
and collective self-determination?
● What are the conditions for the legitimacy of algorithmic
governance in the 21st century?
● How can algorithmic governance itself be governed?
Important information
Deadline 21.1.2019, 4pm
Confirmation of abstracts: February 2019
Information and submission:
https://sts-conference.isds.tugraz.at/event/5/abstracts/
We are looking forward to your abstracts!
Happy greetings
Florian Eyert, Florian Irgmaier and Rainer Rehak
--
Rainer Rehak
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
https://vernetzung-und-gesellschaft.de/portfolio/rainer-rehak/
Weizenbaum-Institut für die vernetzte Gesellschaft
Das Deutsche Internet-Institut
https://vernetzung-und-gesellschaft.de/
Hardenbergstraße 32
10623 Berlin
Forschungsgruppe 18: Quantifizierung und gesellschaftliche Regulierung
https://vernetzung-und-gesellschaft.de/fg18/
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