[STS-Africa] Fw: 4S Toronto 2026 Panel "Technocoloniality: Global Inequalities Within Technological Models And Futures"

[Guilherme Cavalcante Silva]

Dear colleagues,

Professor Gustavo Ferreira from the University of Toronto and I are coordinating a panel at the 4S 2026 – TECHNOPOWER – TECHNOSCIENTIFIC FUTURES meeting, organized by the SOCIETY FOR SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE. The meeting will take place from October 7th to 10th in Toronto, Canada. Below is a description of the panel and the link for submitting abstracts of up to 250 words:

Open Panel: Technocoloniality: Global Inequalities Within Technological Models And Futures

Coordination:
Jose Claudio Castanheira - Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil)
Gustavo Ferreira - University of Toronto (Canada)

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.

This is the link to submit abstracts: https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php

See you in Toronto!

José Cláudio S. Castanheira
Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto
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