17.03.2023
Symposium "Social Justice and Technological Futures"
2–3 May 2023, University of Tübingen, Germany
Researchers and activists increasingly borrow theories and calls to action from social justice movements to face the challenges of Artificial Intelligence, algorithmic bias and discrimination, profit-driven innovation, and technology imaginaries around convenience, optimization, and neutrality. Thanks to the works of Black feminists and critical race theorists as well as decolonial and Global South scholars and activists, we are made aware of the interlockings of societal, economic, cultural, and political oppression in the design, production, and distribution of technology (AI-based and in a broader sense). In thinking about the future and its daunting challenges, including the transformation of work, climate change, migration, and overall precarity, what should be the role of technology? What do technological futures look like from a social justice perspective? The Tübingen Symposium will bring together critiques of unsettling trajectories as well as visions for alternative pathways. We will question the canonical values in technology creation – scale, efficiency, and (big) data aggregation – while also exploring diverse and potentially competing social justice concepts.
The Tübingen Symposium will give invited speakers the opportunity to connect and share views on the topics of the symposium. The audience will benefit from interactive panels including discussions of case studies of harmful contemporary or visionary alternative technologies. Invited speakers and participants may bring perspectives from science fiction, Afrofuturism, tech governance, policy and regulation, design approaches for social justice, digital activism, responsible research and innovation, decolonial approaches to technology development, and more! For questions, please contact Laura Schelenz, laura.schelenz@uni-tuebingen.de.
Here you can find the Symposium Program.