The joint EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) and 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) conference is now accepting abstract proposals and GeDIS team would like to particularly invite you to submit your abstracts for the panel on "Crafting Critical Methodologies in Computing: theories, practices and future directions".

Crafting Critical Methodologies in Computing: theories, practices and future directions (Panel 32)

Panel Organisers (alphabetically ordered): Loren Britton, University of Kassel; Claude Draude, University of Kassel, Germany; Juliane Jarke, University of Bremen; Goda Klumbyte, University of Kassel

In the past decades there has been an explosion of “critical studies”, and computing is no exception. Working to bring insights from critical theories developed in the humanities and social sciences, the diverse scholarship that can be located under “critical computing” is engaged in the laborious and relevant project of translational work between disciplines, and generative avenues for knowledge developed in the “subtle” sciences to bear implication to how computational technologies are designed, produced and deployed.

Critical computing draws inspiration and methodological tools from fields as diverse as participatory design and design research, feminist theory and gender studies, STS, artistic research and post-/de-colonial theory, among others. In this panel we wish to investigate what are the methodological approaches that can be employed within, by and for computing, which would be capable of generating critical technical practices (Agre 1995), accurate and critical accounts of power dynamics and processes of marginalization, and craft space for alternative modes and methods of doing computing.

Specifically, we encourage contributions that address questions, including, but not limited to:

• How can critical thought/theory inform methodology building (or reflecting upon) in computing?
• How can interactions between (feminist, postcolonial) STS and computing establish new methodological considerations?
• How do we decolonize computing and its methodologies?
• Where do we locate artistic research, arts practice and design in regards to questions of methodology in computing?
• How can feminist and other critical epistemological knowledges generate knowledge about and in computing that from an STS perspective challenge well worn power dynamics?

Contact: claude.draude[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Keywords: critical computing, feminist STS, methodologies, postcolonial studies, artistic research

Categories: Gender/Sexuality/Feminist STS; Information, Computing and Media Technology; Knowledge, Theory and Method

To submit your abstract, please apply via conference abstract submission system and mention the number of the panel that you would like to submit your abstract to (in this case, panel 32). Papers submitted to an open panel will be reviewed by the open panel organizer(s) and will be given first consideration for that session. Also at the time of submission, you will also be asked to nominate two alternative open panel preferences for your paper. In the event that your paper is not included in the open panel of your first preference it will be considered for the alternative panels indicated in your submission.

Submission deadline isFebruary 29, 2020.