[Air-L] [Deadline extension] Network Imaginaries: Past, Present, and Future (4S 2025 Seattle)

[Charles CORVAL]

Dear colleagues,

We would like to share that the deadline for submitting an abstract to the
4S panel,* Network Imaginaries: Past, Present, and Future* (September 3-7,
2025, Seattle, WA, USA), has been *extended** to February 2nd*. You can
find the original Call for Papers with updated information below.

We welcome papers of varying approaches that consider the origins,
mobilizations, endurances, and evolutions of the network imaginaries
underlying technologies and systems from the 19th Century through to
contemporary transformations and promises. (See below for the full call and
submission details.)

Proposals consisting of a short abstract (up to 250 words) will be accepted
until January 31 *February 2nd* via the official website of the Society for
Social Studies of Science (4S).

Charles Corval

Sciences Po Paris / Institut d'études politiques de Paris

—

4S Open Panel 239: Network Imaginaries: Past, Present, and Future

Decades after the introduction of the consumer internet, society now
anticipates profound transformations in computing and networking driven by
innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, the
internet-of-things (IoT), robotics, data mining, and cloud computing. As
these developments promise—or threaten—to reshape public and private
networks and technologies, it is vital to investigate the network
imaginaries that motivate, constrain, and enable their development,
adoption, regulation, and exploitation.

Network imaginaries have long been central to modernity, from their origins
in symbolic practices like weaving to their influence on technical and
organizational thought. In fact, as Pierre Musso (2003) has argued, the
concept of the network is foundational to our collective imaginations, even
shaping both the philosophies and social sciences that critique them.
Information and communication technologies, in particular, have become
unimaginable without the language and imagery of networks, and they remain
effective and powerful as innovations periodically promise to repair,
reinforce, and reconfigure existing systems, practices, and economies (De
Filippi, 2019).

According to Castoriadis (1975), social imaginaries are the shared
meanings, symbols, and institutions a society creates and sustains to
define itself, guide its practices, and provide coherence to its social
order. Similarly, sociotechnical imaginaries, as articulated by Jasanoff
and Kim (2015), offer a critical framework for understanding the cultural
and ideological contexts of technological adoption and innovation. This
panel on network imaginaries, then, seeks to explore these inspirations,
contexts, and intersections while reexamining -- or preexamining -- the
utopias, anxieties, and ideologies embedded in contemporary networks and
networked technologies, as well as their intended and unintended
consequences.

We welcome proposals representing a variety of perspectives and approaches
to addressing the enduring network imaginaries of existing and emerging
technologies and techniques. Potential topics include but are not limited
to historic networks, information economics, artificial intelligence,
cybernetics, decentralization narratives, surveillance regimes, digital
sovereignty, IoT, blockchain, and the future role of new technologies
toward repairing or reinforcing preexisting network functions and goals.

Open Panel:

Network Imaginaries: Past, Present, and Future (Panel 239)

Proposal Format:

Short Abstract (250 words max)

Proposal Deadline:

January 31, 2025

February 2nd, 2025

Notice of Acceptance:

March 15, 2025

Proposal Submission:

https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php

Panel Organizers:

Charles Corval, charles.corval at sciencespo.fr

Daniel Kim, ddaniel.kim at utoronto.ca