[Air-L] 4S Open Panel - Ethics and-or-versus Regulation: Technoscience policy and governance in different registers

[Maria Paula Angel Arango]

Dear colleagues,

Apologies for cross posting. We invite submissions to our open panel at 4S 2025 - September 3-7, 2025, Seattle WA. Please see details below:

Open panel: Ethics and-or-versus Regulation: Technoscience policy and governance in different registers

Abstract: 

Science & Technology Studies (STS) has long been concerned with the governance of technoscience. This panel addresses the tensions, correspondence, and relations between two non-distinct forms of governance -- the law and ethics. For example, scholars have derided ethics efforts by corporations as efforts to avoid regulation. Meanwhile ethical codes sometimes explicitly encourage people to follow the law while also suggesting ethical behaviors that might run afoul of laws. One country's law may explicitly contradict a professional society's code of ethics.
Papers for this panel could address:

Under which circumstances, if any, could ethical principles or the law be enough;
Comparisons of governance with ethics and governance with the law; Histories of ethics and law governing technoscience;
The practical challenges of translating ethical principles into enforceable regulations;
How ethical concerns directly shape regulation;
How tech regulations shape ethical discourse and practice;
When ethical codes and legal codes disagree;
The impact of cultural differences on the ethics-regulation relationship; The role of corporations’ legal and engineering teams in the development of ethics governance frameworks;
Praxis or examples demonstrating the interactions, competitions, or co-constitution of ethics and law;
The influence of “innovation” rhetoric on the balance between ethical frameworks and regulatory interventions.

We encourage submissions that address this prompt from different perspectives and in formats that experiment with the traditional form of academic paper.

Conveners: Megan Finn, Meg Leta Jones, Alexis Shore Ingber, & María P. Angel

Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2025

To submit, please go to the 4S submission page <https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_seattle.php> and select panel #45.

Best,


María P. Angel, PhD
Resident Fellow 
Information Society Project (ISP) | Yale Law School
Personal Website <https://mariapangel.com/>