[acc-cca-l] Call for Open Panels: 4S Conference 2026 Toronto

[Alison Harvey]

[△EXTERNAL]


Please forward to your departments, research centres, colleagues, and anyone else you think might be interested (and apologies for any cross-posting)

Dear all,

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S - @4sweb.bsky.social)<https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:llagtmgxh2bn7r7kefshxepg> Annual Conference this year with Kean Birch and Sergio Sismondo: https://4sonline.org/about_the_conference_toronto.php

The conference is being held in Toronto, 7-10th Oct 2026.

Conference Theme: TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures
The 50th Anniversary for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S): calls for presentations, panels, and adjacent gatherings that engage our theme of TechnoPower. Science, technology, and innovation are not neutral; as STS scholars, we understand them as socially, culturally, and economically constructed and deeply entangled with a specific form of technoscientific power. The theme emphasizes that money and wealth are increasingly shaping our technoscientific futures, raising urgent analytical and normative questions about how to reclaim power from “tech” billionaires and oligarchs. At this critical juncture, our task is not only to critique and demystify technoscience but also transform how others perceive and engage with technoscience. From the reinforcement of harmful value(s) systems to the assetization of knowledge and the erosion of ecological and social justice, a specifically technoscientific capitalism has embedded market logics and elite control into our knowledge institutions, innovation choices, and into technological change itself. Yet, as we also know so well, technoscience is always contested, and STS offers plural and grounded alternatives to understanding and reframing technoscience, from citizen science to community engagement in innovation to Indigenous knowledge. A key challenge now is to accelerate our interventions into public, policy, and political debate by using our empirical, analytical, and normative tools to shift technoscientific futures away from the dictates of a wealthy few towards a technoscience that fosters collective wellbeing, justice, and sustainability.

You can submit your Open Panel proposals here: https://4sonline.org/call_for_open_panels_toronto.php (deadline: 2nd February 2026)

Look forward to seeing you there!

Alison

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