Over the past decades, in the face of natural hazards, economic collapses, democratic deficits and other forms of daunting setbacks, a prosperous body of literature has emerged to address the precariousness, complexity and plurality of things, beings and their coexistence. Within this literature emerging from Science and Technology Studies, as well as from bordering disciplines, various debates have suggested the fragility of not only the Earth and its ecosystems, but also of large technical systems, forms of life, human bodies and scientific knowledge. Different scholars and researchers have argued that such cataclysms offer us potential pathways to rethink the emergence and composition of heterogeneous worlds, the relations between various ecologies of possibility, so as to reconnect with non-human forms, values, actors and species. Many of them argue for re-imagining the politics of inquiry to develop arts of noticing the “thickness” or “togetherness” of the actual and multiple worlds we inhabit.
Building on these debates, this inter/national conference invites contributions that engage empirically, but also methodologically or theoretically, with fragile futures. This invitation has taken on a new urgency in the light of the global pandemics of COVID-19, and the resulting total crisis. In this new call, we therefore welcome contributions addressing this unprecedented event as an occasion to reflect upon fragilisation, discontinuation, and recomposition processes.
Against this backdrop, the overarching conference aim is to reassess the recent contributions of STS and beyond to the study of emerging worlds by gathering scholars from both inside and outside this interdisciplinary field of research. Through different formats (workshops, thematic panels, exhibitions, art performances, round tables etc.), we seek to address how such approaches can have significant impact on the understanding of contemporary issues such as climate change, global health, digitalisation, knowledge politics, open innovation, maintenance and discontinuation, heritage and futurism, migra1on and care practices, among others, by capturing how they participate in reinventing worlds in the making. We welcome all proposals that allow for fruiUul exchanges, experimental collaborations and speculative modes of engagement between academics from various disciplines, but also with and among activists, artists, and anyone concerned.
Possible topics include
Climate change and environmental sciences
Artificial intelligence and algorithm studies
Knowledge politics and post-truth
Maintenance and repair studies
Migration and border studies
Medicine and environmental health
Gender studies and material feminism
Communication infrastructure and digital technologies
Hacking, DIY and open innovation
Market devices and the platform economy
Digital cities, open government and platform urbanism
Participatory design and experimental knowledge infrastructures
Media studies and web philosophy
Like former editions before the Swiss STS Meeitng 2021 is intended to encourage and promote the social, historical and philosophical study of sciences in Switzerland. This event lasts for three days and aims at bringing together STS scholars of all career levels.