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Dear all,

We would like to share details of a call for papers for a two-day workshop at the University of Edinburgh on ‘A Social Science of Databases’, Tuesday 17 June 2025 and Wednesday 18th June 2025. The deadline for submissions is Friday 11th April, 6pm (BST); to apply, a 300-word abstract for a paper/presentation should be sent to max.perry@ed.ac.uk.

The workshop is organised as part of the DARE project, based at the Science, Technology and Innovation Studies department at the University of Edinburgh. The DARE project examines the intersections of data, care and learning in the age of ‘data-driven’ healthcare. Successful applicants will need to provide own travel and accommodation, however lunches & refreshments will be provided on both days. We are happy to discuss options for single -day attendance. If you are keen to attend but do not have funding, please contact Max Perry (max.perry@ed.ac.uk) directly, who will be happy to discuss options.

OPEN CALL: A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES: BUILDING METAPHYSICAL MACHINES.

SELECT ID, workshop_title, key_word FROM workshops, keywords WHERE workshop_title = “BUILDING LARGE DATABASES” AND workshops.ID = workshop_id;

ID WORKSHOP_TITLE key_word 0.5216929 A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES INFRASTRUCTURE 0.5216929 A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES DATA 0.5216929 A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES DATABASE 0.5216929 A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES CYBERNETICS 0.5216929 A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES SOCIAL THEORY 0.5216929 A SOCIAL SCIENCE OF DATABASES PHILOSOPHY OF INFORMATION

Contemporary society is marked by a will to data. The accumulation of a form of empirical material that is tabulated, quantifiable and ontologically fixed as ‘data’ is now a de facto imperative for the improvement of society ethically, normatively, and scientifically. What Hoeyer has called ‘intensified data sourcing’ (Hoeyer, 2023) has, in this way, become a prominent feature of public institutions, private organisations, and —increasingly— of technologies of the self (oft rendered material through bespoke and individuated ‘smart’ devices, the primary function of which is the production of ‘data’).

Social scientists attending to data practices have evidenced the sociality of data usages (Beaulieu & Leonelli, 2020), of processes of transformation in creating data (Bowker & Star, 1999), and of the curation of data towards instrumental purposes (Tempini, 2021). In so doing data has been productively theorised and empirically located as a socio-material practice. However, less has been said about the machines built to store and manage data; about data infrastructures. These machines represent a novel opportunity for understanding our contemporary societies. Where data sourcing often prefigures its usages, where value is located not in the ends data is put to (in the knowledge that is produced), but in the presence of data at all (in the size and ‘quality’ of the database) (See: Cuffe, 2025), the understanding of the machines which house data becomes a more urgent empirical problem.

This workshop looks to bring together scholars thinking about the creation, maintenance, and gestalt qualities of the machines that house and transmit data; that is, those scholars thinking about databases. We invite papers from participants working on the technical and physical development of databases from a social science, historical, critical humanities, philosophical or otherwise related perspective. Papers and subsequent discussion will cover the material and epistemic machines that house data. Such discussions could include: data ontologies, standardised languages, SQL, NoSQL, ‘blob’ storage, server farms, cloud computing, power requirements, caballing, microprocessor technologies, the functioning and scales of binary digits, solid state drives, hard disks, tape, ‘cyber’ security, physical security, and the aesthetics of databases.

The workshop will take place over two days, with one day for paper presentations, and the second day for discussion between workshop participants with the hope of advancing a theory of databases, and solidifying future collaborative endeavours as panels, conferences, a journal special edition or edited collection.

WORKSHOP DETAILS START: 1300 TUESDAY 17TH JUNE 2025 FINISH: 1600 WEDNESDAY 18TH JUNE 2025 LOCATION: UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, UK.

Beaulieu, A. & Leonelli, S. (2021) Data & Society: A Critical Introduction. Washington, D.C: SAGE Publications Ltd. Bowker, G. C. & Star, S. L. (1999) Sorting Things Out: Classification And Its Consequences. Cambridge, Mass. ; MIT Press. Cuffe, R. (2025) Data, waves and wind to be counted in the economy. BBC News [Online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czedpnen168o [Accessed: 10/03/2025] Hoeyer, K. (2023) Data Paradoxes: The Politics of Intensified Data Sourcing in Contemporary Healthcare, London: MIT Press. Tempini, N. (2021) Data curation-research: practices of data standardization and exploration in a precision medicine database. New genetics and society. [Online] 40 (1), 73–94.

Max Edward Perry Postdoctoral Research Fellow (DARE) Science, Technology and Innovation Studies University of Edinburgh Email: Max.Perry@ed.ac.uk Office: 2.82 / Old Surgeon’s Hall

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