Science and Democracy Network
23rd Annual Meeting
August 29-31, 2024
ETH Zürich (Switzerland)
Call for Abstracts
The Science and Democracy Network invites abstracts (300 words max) summarizing research at the intersections of science, technology and political order for its 23rd Annual Meeting to be held in Zürich (Switzerland).
If you would like to present at the 2024 Annual Meeting, please submit an abstract and a short bio (up to 150 words) using this form by May 13, 2024. Prospective presenters will be notified of their acceptance by mid-June.
Precirculated papers are a defining feature of SDN annual meetings. If your abstract is accepted, you will be expected to produce a paper to share with your panel members and other SDN participants. Papers (suggested length 15-20 pages) should be submitted no later than August 12. If you have any questions, please contact Gabriel Dorthe.
The conference is organized around the following major themes, with priority given to work by junior scholars. Non-western topics and perspectives are especially welcome.
Institutions: Role of governmental and non-governmental institutions in producing, using, disseminating or contesting authoritative knowledge; institutions with claims to epistemic authority include, besides organized science, NGOs, corporations, international governmental organizations, scientific committees, universities, the state and its agencies, municipal and regional authorities, and courts. The dynamics of knowledge-making across actor categories and levels of governance (cities, regions, states, international organizations) are of particular interest.
Citizenship and Participation: Forms and modes of citizen mobilization and expression around scientific or technological issues, including (new) social movements, novel forms of political expression, participation and activism, patient groups, indigenous peoples, and “liminal citizens” (endangered species, animals, embryos, stem cells, and algorithms, for example).
Communication and Representation: Intersection between political and expert or professional discourses; regimes of producing and extracting value from bodies, persons, and environments and their relationship to political representation; role and political implications of specialized knowledge, science and technologies in (mis)representation, identity-formation, democratic deliberation, repression, dispossession and empowerment.
Topics of interest for this year’s SDN meeting include (but are not limited to):
Teaching STS: How can STS contribute to technical and policy curricula, especially within technical universities, public policy schools, or other professional training programs?
Democracy and the governance of innovation: How does innovation policy cut across and get shaped by different scales of governance (cities, regions, states, corporations, international organizations)? What contestations emerge around responsibility and sovereignty?
The politics of resource extraction: How are environmental and digital transitions imagined in relation to their material demands? How do societies anticipate or predict the future through extractive practices? How does the extraction and use of natural resources influence the political dynamics of sovereignty or citizenship?
The politics of the “planetary” gaze: How have new conceptions of responsibility or rightness been co-produced with technoscientific conceptions of “the planet”? How do the technosciences of the “planetary” environment undo or re-entrench long standing ethical and political commitments?
STS and ethics: How has the relationship between STS and the ethics of science and technology evolved over time? What special insights does STS analysis offer to the ethics and governance of emerging technologies?
SDN Annual Meetings normally include between 24-30 papers. Preference is given to individuals who did not present in the previous year, but all submissions are encouraged and no abstracts are excluded from consideration.
Panel and Roundtable Submissions: SDN accepts proposals for panels and/or roundtables on themes related to the Network’s core concerns. Typically only one panel proposal is accepted each year.
Proposals must meet high standards of theoretical significance and/or broad political or policy salience, though formats for such discussions can be flexible. For instance, panelists need not present formal papers but might offer “lightning talks” on a common theme from diverse disciplinary perspectives or methodological backgrounds.
Graduate Travel Fund: Limited travel funds may be available for graduate students who face demonstrable financial hardship in attending the conference. Please contact Gabriel Dorthe for more information.
This meeting is organized with the generous support of:
