[Air-L] Inviting submissions to 4S open panel on Mobile AI

[Adriana de Souza e Silva]

Hi all,

We are accepting submissions for an open panel Yifan Xu and I organized at the 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) conference, which will happen this year in Toronto, October 7-10. The panel description is below.

If you are interested in the topic and would like to participate, abstracts can be submitted here: https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php

Please reach out with any questions (a.desouzaesilva at northeastern.edu <mailto:a.desouzaesilva at northeastern.edu>).

Best,
_____________________________________

Adriana de Souza e Silva, Ph.D. (she/hers)

Professor of Communication Studies

Director, Center for Transformative Media <https://camd.northeastern.edu/center-for-transformative-media/>
 


 

2025-2025 University AI Faculty Fellow <https://learning.northeastern.edu/programs/ai-in-teaching-and-learning-fellows/>
Senior Editor, Mobile Media & Communication <https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mmc>
Chair, ICA Mobile Communication Division <https://www.icamobile.org/>
www.souzaesilva.com <http://www.souzaesilva.com/>


Accepted Open Panels, Toronto 2026

246 Mobile AI in Urban Life: Power, Infrastructure, and Community Innovation Around the Globe
Adriana de Souza e Silva, Northeastern University; Yifan Xu, University of Texas at Austin

Urban STS; Information, Computing and Media Technology; Infrastructure

For most people worldwide, artificial intelligence (AI) is experienced through mobile devices
and the urban infrastructures they interact with in everyday life. This is called Mobile AI: AI
embedded in smartphones, navigation apps, and smart transit systems. These systems
transform the way people experience cities beyond individual app usage, structuring
millions of micro-decisions that together govern the terms of social and economic
participation, shaping how people communicate and move around in urban spaces.
Navigation apps like Waze help users find new routes through neighborhoods, increasing
unintended traffic congestion, while autonomous vehicles like Waymo rely on AI algorithms
to determine geofenced service boundaries, invisibly shaping which neighborhoods gain
access to driverless mobility technology. The increasing embeddedness of Mobile AI in
everyday life raises fundamental STS concerns about how these technologies reshape power,
human agency, mobility, and citizenship.

In the majority of the world, where mobile connectivity is the primary form of digital
access, Mobile AI is reshaping urban mobilities, social relationships, and resource allocation.
Yet scholarship about AI remain dominated by U.S.-centric perspectives that focus on
affluent communities, leaving what Irani (2019) calls “the other 90%” largely invisible. This
panel addresses this gap by examining how Mobile AI unfolds in diverse urban spaces. We
especially welcome submissions centering under-resourced communities whose
technological practices challenge dominant narratives about AI innovation and expertise.

Submissions might include, but are not restricted to, the following topics:
Mobile AI infrastructures as governing force that structure opportunity and vulnerability, determining who can access services, earn a living, or participate in urban life;
How communities engage in “infrastructuring from below”, appropriating AI tools to create opportunities previously unavailable to them (i.e., grassroots organizing,
communication, or livelihood creation).
Mobile AI’s integration into everyday urban life across geographical and economic
contexts;
Maintenance, repair, and care work sustaining Mobile AI infrastructures.