Tech industry imaginaries at and from the edge (by invitation)
A transformative shift in thinking and imagining the future is imperative, to transcend the boundaries of conventional criticism and current imagination. This involves reconceptualizing our relationship to the environment, ethics and equity, through a more-than-human and sociotechnical lens.
This event explores the pervasive presence of technological imaginaries across various industries, such as the energy, technology and health sectors, and asks how we can make them more plausible, inclusive and desirable. Dominant neoliberal industry imaginaries are incredibly influential. They include assumptions about social and technological change which permeate industry discourses, media portrayals, people's everyday lives and research agendas. Through interrogating current industry imaginaries, this panel asks difficult questions about how we can disrupt them, and what consequences this disruption can have. Focusing particularly on challenging imaginaries from the "edge" (conceptually, geographically, institutionally and personally), the closed session will explore new routes for radical and sustainable change.
Provocations
- Imaginaries and Technological Determinism: It's crucial to challenge the notion of technological imaginaries as fixed entities, as they can often perpetuate technological determinism, wherein technology is seen as the sole driver of social change. What is your approach to this?
- Technologies and Imaginative Effects on Tech Futures: Through which technologies and imaginative effects tech have futures been conceived? How has science fiction, media, and speculative design have shaped our perceptions of technology?
- Addressing Separation Anxiety and Ontological Flatness: There is an accusation to sociology and anthropology of suffering from separation anxiety regarding technology and persons from the established paradigm in STS , in turn in social sciences there are growing concerns about ontological flatness. In this context what are the nascent entities that populate the spheres we inhabit and research?
- Moving from holistic concepts to current research insights: How can we transition from totalizing concepts like the more-than-human and Anthropocene built on theoretical insights from fields such as critical theory, science and technology studies and posthumanism, to empirical research addressing the intersection of tech and society informing a continuously evolving conceptual framework?
- Disrupting imaginaries through research and practice: How have you approached the disruption of dominant sociotechnical imaginaries through your own research and practice? What worked and what didn’t?
Presented by Debora Lanzeni and Yolande Strengers
This talk is by invitation only.
Futures at the Edge symposium
This slow symposium discusses futures at/in/from the edge. It calls for a decentralising vision and asks how people, other species, environment and emerging technologies might live together in the as yet unknown, propelled by its edges.
Event Details
- Date:
- 7 December 2023 at 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
- Venue:
- Building F, Level 6, Room 7 Monash Caulfield
Description
A transformative shift in thinking and imagining the future is imperative, to transcend the boundaries of conventional criticism and current imagination. This involves reconceptualizing our relationship to the environment, ethics and equity, through a more-than-human and sociotechnical lens.
This event explores the pervasive presence of technological imaginaries across various industries, such as the energy, technology and health sectors, and asks how we can make them more plausible, inclusive and desirable. Dominant neoliberal industry imaginaries are incredibly influential. They include assumptions about social and technological change which permeate industry discourses, media portrayals, people's everyday lives and research agendas. Through interrogating current industry imaginaries, this panel asks difficult questions about how we can disrupt them, and what consequences this disruption can have. Focusing particularly on challenging imaginaries from the "edge" (conceptually, geographically, institutionally and personally), the closed session will explore new routes for radical and sustainable change.
Provocations
- Imaginaries and Technological Determinism: It's crucial to challenge the notion of technological imaginaries as fixed entities, as they can often perpetuate technological determinism, wherein technology is seen as the sole driver of social change. What is your approach to this?
- Technologies and Imaginative Effects on Tech Futures: Through which technologies and imaginative effects tech have futures been conceived? How has science fiction, media, and speculative design have shaped our perceptions of technology?
- Addressing Separation Anxiety and Ontological Flatness: There is an accusation to sociology and anthropology of suffering from separation anxiety regarding technology and persons from the established paradigm in STS , in turn in social sciences there are growing concerns about ontological flatness. In this context what are the nascent entities that populate the spheres we inhabit and research?
- Moving from holistic concepts to current research insights: How can we transition from totalizing concepts like the more-than-human and Anthropocene built on theoretical insights from fields such as critical theory, science and technology studies and posthumanism, to empirical research addressing the intersection of tech and society informing a continuously evolving conceptual framework?
- Disrupting imaginaries through research and practice: How have you approached the disruption of dominant sociotechnical imaginaries through your own research and practice? What worked and what didn’t?
Presented by Debora Lanzeni and Yolande Strengers
This talk is by invitation only.
Futures at the Edge symposium
This slow symposium discusses futures at/in/from the edge. It calls for a decentralising vision and asks how people, other species, environment and emerging technologies might live together in the as yet unknown, propelled by its edges.