April 16-17, 2021
Online
Abstract Deadline: December 16, 2020 11:59 p.m. PT
Contemporary biological, environmental, social, and political crises expose a pressing need to rethink the sciences’ place and orientation in society. Technological innovation and infrastructures have played significant roles in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, the global rise in authoritarianism, and a widespread expansion in economic and social injustice. As policymakers and publics look to the sciences to help address these problems, it becomes increasingly important to reflect upon the current and proper purposes, uses, and aims of the sciences. What communities and values are served by present research and innovation systems? Which are harmed, undercut, or left behind? Our contemporary crises can be understood as outgrowths of neglect for economically and politically marginalized communities in the scoping and orientation of research; and of inattention to the potential dangers, as well as the benefits, of techno-social innovations.
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