Call for Papers: 4S Conference

The Starling Centre seeks contributions for its Open Panel: “Just Technologies for Just Societies” at the 50th 4S Conference in Seattle this September.

Imagine the synchronous movement of a flock of starlings. Murmurations are a vivid metaphor for the relationships between just societies and just technologies: complex, interwoven, and capable of reverberating across boundaries, spaces, and bodies. As societies become ever more technologically mediated, the intersections between justice and technology multiply in intricate patterns. But what happens when the murmuration falters?

There is an extensive body of research documenting how technology development and use accelerate and exacerbate inequity, oppression, and exclusion in contexts including policing, farming, social provisioning, health care, cultural production, scientific practice, and more. In response to unjust tech being used in ways that lead to increasing social inequity, we see significant community organization and mobilization. For example, mobilization has led to pre-emptive bans on police use of facial recognition technologies in cities across the United States, to Right to Repair political interventions and recent victories in Canada, and wide-ranging strategic litigation to challenge the unjust impact of automated welfare systems in the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

In this open panel, we stress the need to learn from collective and critical socio-technical interventions, particularly the complex, multi-faceted ways that people come together to organize, mobilize and promote just technologies and just societies. Can we reimagine systems that, rather than atomize and disaggregate, empower and unite communities instead? How might technologies become tools of solidarity, sustainability, and liberation? We welcome a diverse range of contributions on the theme of just technologies for just societies that help us move from critique to action —towards a world-building future where technology serves the collective good.

Deadline: 31 January 2025