[STS-Africa] Call for Papers - deadline February 14

[Christine A. Leuenberger]

CALL FOR PAPERS: “Space, Conflict & Technologies”
CONFERENCE: V STS ITALIA CONFERENCE A Matter of Design. Making Society through Science and Technology (Milan, Italy, June 12-14 2014)


The call for paper for the 24th track of the V STS ITALIA CONFERENCE is officially open.
ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 15, 2014

Track 24: Space, Conflict & Technologies
Convenors: Simone Tosoni (Catholic University of Milan); Matteo Tarantino (Catholic University of Milan);  Christine Leuenberger (Cornell University)

Description:
Human geographers have long stressed the dynamic nature of space. More than a mere container of processes, space is always co-produced by those processes. It is a “relational” space “folded” into social relations. Space possesses a heterogeneous nature, at the same time symbolic (“spatial representations”), pragmatic (“spatial practices”) and physical (“spatial materiality”). What’s more, the social production of space is always an open process, only temporarily stabilizable.
Sociotechnical objects such as spatial technologies (e.g. maps and GPS) or material arrangements (e.g. urban layouts) play a central role in stabilizing and transforming spatial relations. Social actors mobilize those sociotechnical objects within socio-spatial controversies - that is, conflicts about the legitimate use, representation or materiality of a space. Within those conflicts, competing actors may (and do) attempt to circulate spatial representations, regulate social practices or to modify the physicality of space through sociotechnical objects. This is most evident in urban contexts, where the broad range of users and institutions involved in its continuous production entail a high potential friction. Yet this is also true at other scales, from households to nation-states.
In this track we are interested in theoretical, empirical and methodological works about the mobilization of sociotechnical objects in socio-spatial controversies, at all scales. Possible topics include:

a) Sur- and sous-veillance technologies, including sensors and data banks.
b) Communication technologies in policing, managing and/or intervening.
c) The use of architecture and infrastructures to regulate sociospatial dynamics.
d) Space, technologies and inequalities.
e) The production and representation of space and spatial hierarchies through maps, GIS and mapping
software.
All submissions and presentations need to be in English.

ABSTRACTS MUST BE SUBMITTED by February 15, 2014
AT:
http://www.stsitalia.org/?p=1434&lang=en
For any inquiries please contact Matteo Tarantino (matteo.tarantino at unicatt.it<mailto:matteo.tarantino at unicatt.it>) or Simone Tosoni (simone.tosoni at unicatt.it<mailto:simone.tosoni at unicatt.it>).


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