EASST Panel #57 "Datafication Goes Material: Digital Capitalism and the Material Conditions of Existence"
+++ apologies for cross-posting +++
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to submit abstracts to our panel at the 2022 EASST = conference in Madrid, Spain (July 6-9, = 2022):=20
57.=C2=A0Datafication Goes Material: Digital Capitalism and the Material = Conditions of Existence = =20 Panel organizers: Yana Boeva, Kathrin Braun, Mascha Gugganig & Cordula = Kropp
Datafication has been identified as a defining feature of contemporary = capitalism. Scholarship in critical data studies, STS, social theory and = political economy has interrogated the dynamics of datafication = processes in light of a larger sociotechnical and techno-economic = reconfiguration of capitalism, captured by concepts such as = platformisation, financialisation and assetisation (Birch and Muniesa = 2020; Burrell and Fourcade 2021; Fourcade and Healy 2017; Sadowski 2019; = Srnicek 2017). =46rom a perspective of digital capitalism, the =E2=80=9Cda= ta imperative=E2=80=9D (Fourcade and Healy 2017), datafication and the = according data-driven forms of re-organising social life are based on = forms of data extraction that amount to new forms of appropriation and = dispossession through digital enclosure (Cohen 2019; Sadowski 2019) or = data colonialism (Couldry and Mejias 2019). The first analyses on these = matters primarily focused on digital service platforms that generate = revenue from different personal and interaction data that enables = monitoring, assessing, predicting and manipulating social actions. In = short, the discussion has focused on data about social life and = resulting questions of privacy, confidentiality, bias and data = sovereignty.
More recently, however, the logic of capitalist datafication or datafied = capitalism is expanding beyond the realm of services and behavioural = data. Datafication increasingly permeates and enrols the material = world=E2=80=94the world of things, of physical matter, or, in Marxian = terms, the modes of production of material life and the material = conditions of existence. We can see this expansion already in the fields = of agriculture, forestry, medicine, and building construction (Braun et = al. under review; Gabrys 2020; Gugganig and Bronson forthcoming; Kuch et = al. 2020), others are likely to follow. The increasing integration of = technologies (such as sensors, cloud computing, virtual reality, AI and = robotics) enables systems for data gathering, data-generating and = data-processing directed at the re-production, transformation and = incorporation of not only human behaviour, but also buildings, cities, = streets, plants, forests, and bodies in a very material sense. = Buildings, streets, plants and bodies simultaneously become data and the = product of data deployed to increase efficiency and control. = Concurrently, the material preconditions of datafication =E2=80=93 the = need for rare earth minerals, energy resources, telecommunication = infrastructures, but also cheap labour =E2=80=93 demand closer attention = (Cobby 2020). These datafied modes of production raise new questions:
=E2=80=A2 What are the material preconditions of datafication processes, = and do they differ between classic services and more material worlds? =E2=80=A2 Who or what owns and controls these means of production? Who = owns this kind of data? And who is probably dispossessed? =E2=80=A2 What are the institutional frameworks and infrastructures = shaping this transformation? =E2=80=A2 What would be forms of resistance and collective action? =E2=80=A2 Can we conceive of material data-based modes of production = that are not owned and controlled by states or corporations? =E2=80=A2 What do appropriation, colonialism or dispossession mean in = this context? Who are the actors? =E2=80=A2 How does it affect the planetary material conditions of = existence? How does it transform what is being built, what is being = grown, what medical treatment is, how does it affect our lives and = living conditions materially?
We welcome submissions addressing these questions but are not limited to = them.
Key words: datafication, materialities, capitalism
Deadline: February 1st, 2021.
Best wishes, Yana Boeva
Yana Boeva, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Stuttgart Institute for Social Sciences | Cluster of Excellence "Integrative = Computational=C2=A0Design and Construction for Architecture = =E2=80=9D
yanaboeva.xyz | twitter.com/dropsmops =
Editor 4S Backchannels
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]