2 May 2023 - 3 May 2023 | Tübingen

Symposium “Social Justice and Technological Futures”

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?

Social justice theories are crucial instruments to meet the challenges of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. These challenges include algorithmic bias and discrimination, profit-driven innovation, and technology imaginaries around convenience, optimization, and neutrality. The works of Black feminists and critical race theorists as well as decolonial and Global South scholars and activists render visible the interlockings of societal, economic, cultural, and political injustice in the design, production, and distribution of technology.

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. The topics cover 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!

Participation in the symposium is FREE. To register for the symposium and for any questions, please email Laura Schelenz (she/her) at laura.schelenz@uni-tuebingen.de

2-3 May 2023, University of Tübingen, Germany

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