[acc-cca-l] CFP Technologies of Social Order - 4S Toronto October 2026

[Sandra Jeppesen]

[△EXTERNAL]


Hi all,

[With apologies for cross-posting]

Please find attached and pasted below a CFP for a panel on Technologies of Social Order to be held at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) meeting in Toronto in October. Abstracts are to be submitted through the portal link given below.

Toronto 7-10 October 2026
Technologies of Social Order
Chairs: David Struthers, IT University of Copenhagen; Vasilis Galis, IT University of Copenhagen; Sandra Jeppesen, Lakehead University; Debra Mackinnon, Lakehead University
This panel is a call to discuss the role of technology in establishing and maintenance of social order around the world by critically examining the interrelation of technopower with social, economic, and political power. Contributions are sought to challenge technoscientific future narratives that make power relationships invisible through digital and/or green transformations and other processes. We envision a panel consisting of contributors from a range of backgrounds, joined by their interest in STS interdisciplinary research into sociotechnical relationships and technopolitical orders that imagine, materialize, and constitute governance and policy making. The panel, premised on acknowledging the inherent politicization of e.g., digitalization, the green transition, and AI implementation, challenges dominant ideologies attached to market logics, such as efficiency and optimization, as well as neutralized concepts such as responsibility, inclusion, and ethics. Papers should analyze topics such as political economy, the future of work, security, social/ecological justice, policing, (digital) sovereignty, state-making, as well as community engagement, resilience, and activism. Our goal is to further societal critique, rather than optimize or improve the functions of state agencies and/or technoscientific capitalism. In line with the goal, we seek contributions that document the unequal distribution of power in technoscientific implementation, and technologies enforcing, reproducing and/or transforming the political, social, or economic order. We also expect that panelists approach research in solidarity with subjugated populations (e.g., grassroot science, Indigenous communities) and abstain from purely extractivist research.
Deadline: 30 April 2026
Submissions:
https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php
Contact:
David Struthers stru at itu.dk<mailto:stru at itu.dk>
Vasilis Galis vgal at itu.dk<mailto:vgal at itu.dk>
Sandra Jeppesen sjeppese at lakeheadu.ca<mailto:sjeppese at lakeheadu.ca>
Debra Mackinnon dmackin4 at lakeheadu.ca<mailto:dmackin4 at lakeheadu.ca>

All the best,
Sandra
Dr Sandra Jeppesen (she/her)
Professor
Media, Film, and Communications
Interdisciplinary Studies
Social Justice Studies MA

News Media
Sandra Jeppesen<https://www.tbnewswatch.com/local-news/lu-recognizes-outstanding-academic-research-10313917> recognized with Distinguished Researcher Award

Journal Articles
Counter-Mapping Borders<https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945222.003.0064>: No-Border Logics in Housing, Healthcare, and Migration (2026)
Organizing Media<https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/jacm_00147_1>: A political economy typology of alternative media (2026)
The Affective Lives of Cruising<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/11034>: Recharting Space, Place, and Time (2026)
Transformative Media<https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1721>: A Critical Approach to Alt-right Media Appropriations (2025)
Dialogical Consent Practices<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dvr2.70026> in Research With 2S-LGBTQ+ Youth (2025)

Books
Coming Soon: The Political Economy of Alternative Media<https://www.routledge.com/The-Political-Economy-of-Alternative-Media/Jeppesen-ulthiin-Faubert-Petersen/p/book/9781032636375> (Routledge, 2026)
The Capitol Riots: Digital Media, Disinformation, and Democracy Under Attack <https://routledge.pub/The-Capitol-Riots> (Routledge, 2022)
Transformative Media: Intersectional Technopolitics from Indymedia to #BlackLivesMatter<https://www.ubcpress.ca/transformative-media> (UBC Press, 2021)

Special Issue
Counter Data Mapping<https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/issue/view/502> as Communicative Practices of Resistance

Projects Teams Centres Networks
Media Action Research Group<http://www.mediaactionresearch.org/>
Counter Data Mapping Project<https://www.mediaactionresearch.org/counter-mapping-covid-grassroots-visualizations-of-data-on-the-margins/>
Critical EDI Work Project<https://www.mediaactionresearch.org/research/race-gender-diversity/>
Research Centre for Sustainable Communities<https://www.lakeheadu.ca/research-and-innovation/facilities-centres/research-centre-for-sustainable-communities>
Smart[er] Cities Research Network

Land Acknowledgment
Lakehead University Orillia is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg. The Anishinaabeg include the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Pottawatomi nations, collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy.

[https://www.lakeheadu.ca/assets/lkh.png]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.ucalgary.ca/pipermail/acc-cca-l/attachments/20260401/f6b1c4cc/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CFP Tech Social Order.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 124572 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mailman.ucalgary.ca/pipermail/acc-cca-l/attachments/20260401/f6b1c4cc/attachment.pdf>