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Dear EASST mailing list coordinators, I would like to submit the following call for abstract to the mailing list members. Thank you for your collaboration and I remain at your disposal for any further information.

Best, Chiara Loschi University of Bologna, Department of Philosophy

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit your abstracts for the panel 76 «Where sociomateriality lies: Re-thinking the synergies between STS and Information Infrastructure studies in the age of datafication», which will take place at the STS-Italia 10th Conference in Milan, June 11–13, 2025 (Panel № ). Please find the abstract below and here: https://stsitalia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/76.Where-sociomateriality-li es_-Re-thinking-the-synergies-between-STS-and-Information-Infrastructure-stud ies-in-the-age-of-datafication-ID_122.pdf

If you wish to participate in this panel, please submit an abstract (max 500 words) on the conference website by 3 February ( https://stsitalia.org/submission-2025/). You can find more details about the conference and submission process here: STS-Italia Call for Abstracts< https://stsitalia.org/call-for-abstracts/#theme>.

Best wishes,

Claudio Coletta, University of Bologna Chiara Loschi, University of Bologna Lorenzo Olivieri, University of Bologna Annalisa Pelizza, University of Bologna

PANEL 76. Where sociomateriality lies: Re-thinking the synergies between STS and Information Infrastructure studies in the age of datafication

Convenors: Claudio Coletta, University of Bologna Chiara Loschi, University of Bologna Lorenzo Olivieri, University of Bologna Annalisa Pelizza, University of Bologna

Keywords: Sociomateriality, datafication, epistemology, information infrastructures, methods, ontology

The neighboring fields of STS and Information Infrastructures (II) studies are being crossed by opposite but complementary dynamics. On one hand, limiting their engagement with sociomateriality to the selection of the object of analysis (I.e., technical artefacts), upcoming trends in data studies are favoring discursive explanations of technological dynamics in “science, technology and society” (a broad type of “STS”). However, electing datafcation technologies and practices as object of study is not sufficient to qualify as “STS” in the more specific sense of a field of study that developed recognizable epistemological debates and theoretical insights. On the other hand, II studies are experiencing a centripetal move. The analytical and methodological resources introduced in over twenty years are now deployed well beyond the traditional boundaries of the feld, finding application in sensitive and power-laden thematic areas like climate change, health, security, to name a few. And still, the conceptualization of “information infrastructures” qualifies a distinct sociomaterial form, characterized vis-à-vis “systems” and “platforms” by its heterogeneity of components, multiplicity of users and uses, process-based methodologies, epistemologies open to grasp ever-evolving integration and distributed governance. II studies are thus opening to a broader range of matters of concern while retaining an epistemologically distinct approach to datafication. While digital STS share similar epistemological concerns, they are risking confining their sociomaterial core to an object of study (e.g., algorithms, data, digital artefacts), somewhat following emergent areas of study like “critical data studies,” “critical algorithmic studies”, “data ethics.” The epistemological, methodological and analytical specificities of the field appear less enticing. Drawing on these developments, we propose this panel to discuss where sociomateriality lies in (digital) STS and II studies vis-à-vis neighboring disciplines and emerging research areas. How is sociomateriality conceptualized and enacted in the two fields? Does it lie at the ontological, epistemological, methodological or interventionist level? What epistemological perspectives do the two fields share? In what way do they differ? What are the analytical and methodological tools they share (or not)? What is the space for theory in both? How do each of them respectively address the relationship with policy and policymakers?

The panel welcomes submissions inspired by (but not limited to) these questions, and empirical investigations about:

• The sociomateriality of datafcation in STS, Information Infrastructure studies, Critical Data Science, Digital anthropology, etc. What is meant with it in the neighboring fields, beyond the original focus on pipelines and data centers, and beyond data practices and technologies as objects of study; • Data epistemologies across different sub-disciplines (e.g. Critical Data Science, Digital anthropology, IIs, Digital STS); • Sociomateriality “at work” in governance/political processes and data infrastructures (involving security, climate, health, etc.); • Methodologies to investigate the relationality and performativity of sociomaterial data infrastructures, vis-à-vis systems and platforms; • Refections on the politics of design and governance, and on how data infrastructures enact policies by reinforcing or contesting social norms and exclusionary regimes, depending on who controls, accesses, or can modify them; • Reconfiguring ethical considerations and obligations in handling personal, biometric, health and environmental health data, from the perspective of digital STS, Critical Data Studies, II studies or other perspectives.

Dr. Chiara Loschi Assistant Professor (tenured-track RTT) | Department of Philosophy

University of Bologna, via Zamboni 38, 40126 Bologna, Italy

ORCID: 0000-0002-7782-5583 ; Scopus ID: 57193254508

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