[acc-cca-l] Last Days, CFP: Open Panel at 4S: Technocoloniality: Global Inequalities Within Technological Models And Futures

[Gustavo Ferreira]

[△EXTERNAL]


Hello!

We are very close to closing the call for abstracts for our Open Panel at the 4S Panel: Technocoloniality: Global Inequalities Within Technological Models And Futures.

Hope to see colleagues here in Toronto!

Call for papers open March 3–April 30, 2026 (Last days!)
Submissions to open panels should be presented in the form of abstracts of up to 250 words.

Notification of Acceptance: May 29, 2026

4S 2026 Conference: October 7-10, 2026

Link for more information here: https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php

Painel: Technocoloniality: Global Inequalities Within Technological Models And Futures
Gustavo Ferreira - University of Toronto
Jose Claudio Castanheira - Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil)


Technologies respond to social needs that are not always born or perceived spontaneously, but are often created alongside the technology itself. Every technological innovation involves adaptation at various levels – cognitive, cultural, in terms of infrastructure, etc. – so that the social body understands its functioning and necessity.
When understood as systems, technologies present a complexity and pervasiveness capable of affecting various social contexts. However, a minor segment of society defines technological systems that favour its position of power, as their implementation reinforces or creates new forms of inequality. While technologies are socially constructed, the premise of large universal systems only deepens exclusion and imbalance between people, social groups, and countries. It is crucial to highlight the contradictory role that certain technologies play: designed, on the one hand, for the benefit of society, yet also generating and normalizing relations of inequality across class, gender, ethnicity, and age, among others.
As proposed by scholars of the Decolonial Turn, relations of inequality, oppression, and exclusion are a continuation of historical colonialism. The theme of technologies is increasingly unavoidable in discussions of power, sovereignty, and economic development, so this panel aims to broaden the debate by inviting the inclusion of frequently neglected themes on how peripheral societies negotiate, adhere to, or are forced to adhere to technological models, as if they were merely part of a “neutral” technical solution. The panel proposes the notion of technocoloniality as a fruitful basis for analyzing and debating the role of technologies on the demands for infrastructure and their global ecological impact, imaginaries of progress and the future from the periphery, the socio-historical and geopolitical struggles across social groups, the reconfiguration of production chains and the meaning of work, as well as contemporary subjectivity and sociability. We welcome proposals from communicative, historical, sociological, philosophical, and other perspectives.

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