[Air-L] CFP 4S 2025, Indigenous politics of digitalizing extraction

[Ryan Burns]

Hello all,
Please see below for our call for abstract submissions to our 4S open panel. Note the deadline at the end of this month.

4S conference date and location: September 3-7, 2025, Seattle WA

Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2025

To submit, please go to the 4S submission page<https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php> and select Open Panel #38. We note that you may need to create a user account prior to submitting.

Panel title
Indigenous politics of digitalizing extraction: contradictions, decolonialities, and modes of
accumulation

Convenors
Ryan Burns, rlburns at uw.edu
Eliot Tretter, etretter at ucalgary.ca
Dafne da Silva Araujo, dafne.araujo at ucalgary.ca

Short abstract of fewer than 300 characters
The extractive industries are increasingly automated, remote, and digital. Efforts to
understand the implications of this socio-technical shift have insufficiently attended to
Indigenous lives, epistemologies, and political economies. This panel moderates a
dialogue regarding Indigenized impacts of 4th industrial revolution extractivism.

Long abstract of fewer than 300 words. Include a brief discussion of its contribution to the field.
STS research has long shown that natural resource extraction uniquely impacts Indigenous lives, knowledges, lands, and political economies. Historically, legal orders of colonizers have claimed sovereign rights to land, resources, and ways of knowing over and against the claims of Indigenous peoples. Yet, enrolling colonial subjects in the processes of extraction is increasingly necessary for firms nowadays. As extraction becomes increasingly digitalized – automated, saturated with sensors, guided at all stages by AI, and  –  extraction’s impacts on Indigenous communities are likely to shift and are not sufficiently considered in the literature to date. During the late 20th century, Indigenous communities increasingly bargained with resource firms to provide laborers and services to what were commonly the remote sites of extraction. These may be “left behind” as work becomes more remote, or alternatively, these jobs may increase as firms are forced to rework other jobs. Still, Indigenous epistemologies may become more incommensurate with digital infrastructures, or corporate financial and investment strategies may find depreciated fiscal benefits for local groups. Further, Indigenous paradigms can help inform and guide a reconceptualization of digital extraction, and highlight the pressing material consequences of research in this area. This panel aims to provide space for researchers thinking about (1) How STS can (re)conceive digitalized resource extraction, particularly in the ways digital infrastructures shape, enclose, and operationalize Indigenous knowledge? (2) How are Indigenous communities, epistemologies, and political economies implicated in the digitalization of extraction? (3) What political strategies show promise toward resisting extractive neocolonialism, empowering Indigenous communities, and doing decolonial research “otherwise”? We seek to platform a dialogue with activists, community members, and scholars working on extraction’s shifting impacts on Indigenous lives, knowledges, and political economies, and the ways in which political strategies may shift accordingly.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about this panel, but questions about the platform, submission process, and conference should be directed to 4s conference staff.

With happy new year wishes,
Ryan Burns
--
Ryan Burns, PhD, FRCGS
University of Calgary
University of Washington Bothell

Vice-chair, Digital Geographies Specialty Group of the AAG

https://burnsr77.github.io/

He/his pronouns

The University of Calgary is located in southern Alberta on the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 peoples--Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). The City of Calgary is also home to the Metis Nation, Region 3. I am privileged, grateful, and indebted to be allowed to work within these lands.