[Air-L] 4S 2026 Toronto CfA: "Does Generative AI Flip the Script? A Look at Power and Use in Everyday Sociotechnical Practice"

[Gabriel ALCARAS]

Dear colleagues,

I would like to share with you a call for abstracts to panel 26 “Does
Generative AI Flip the Script? A Look at Power and Use in Everyday
Sociotechnical Practice”.

We welcome empirical contributions focusing on professional, domestic, or
everyday uses of generative AI systems, as well as on situations involving
workarounds, limited adoption, or refusal. The panel engages with the
notion of the script in STS and the challenges GenAI poses to it, asking
how processes of scripting and de-scription are being reconfigured. The
panel description is below.

Please reach out with any questions at gabriel.alcaras at sciencespo.fr.
All the best,

Gabriel
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*Does Generative AI Flip the Script? A Look at Power and Use in Everyday
Sociotechnical Practice*
*Gabriel Alcaras, Sciences Po; Donato Ricci, Sciences Po*
Open Panel #26

This panel asks whether generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) calls
for a rethinking of a foundational STS concept: the script (Akrich, 1992).
Drawing on a cinematographic analogy, classic analyses of scripts showed
how designers inscribe values and frameworks of action into technical
artifacts, which users then perform and reinterpret in practice, much as
actors work from a scenario.

GenAI calls this tradition into question. Academics from different fields
have suggested that it differs in kind from scripted artifacts: computer
scientists call them General Purpose Technology (Eloundou et al., 2024),
STS scholars emphasize their “task-agnostic” character and the absence of a
clearly delimited program of action (Schulz-Schaeffer, 2025), while Labour
Process Theorists describe them as a “universal machine,” capable of
scriptless absorption of human capacities (Steinhoff, 2024).

The study of actual uses and practices is decisive for understanding what
becomes of scripts in the era of GenAI. Do scripts still meaningfully
structure action? Are they operating through new forms of encoding and
prescription? Does GenAI shift the burden of scripting onto users, who must
repeatedly specify tasks? Or does its apparent unscripted nature open space
for creative or subversive uses? More generally, what does de-scription
mean for GenAI? This panel contributes to current STS debates and the 4S
Technopower theme by asking whether generative AI reconfigures how power is
enacted in everyday sociotechnical practice.

We invite empirical contributions that document how these questions unfold
across professional, domestic, and everyday uses of GenAI. Papers may focus
on concrete enactments of these systems, as well as on situations of
limited use, circumvention, or refusal. We particularly welcome studies
centered on minority groups or practices. Contributions may also engage
with methodological challenges, proposing inventive or participatory
approaches that privilege the perspectives of users and workers over
dominant accounts aligned with tech firms and corporate hype.

The deadline for submitting proposals is April 30, 2026.
Submissions can be made via the 4S website at
https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.4sonline.org_accepted-5Fopen-5Fpanels-5Ftoronto.php&d=DwQFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=fL-HZ3beQSCwiZoyCRj8LPGQuC0S6bt-8mx3vjHdNRc&m=MfGTPorIzMS4NKHfPpr5EUZFxee9u-fvacLiOix8azc_hJCZB1aRKsdDY0ap6AF3&s=vbEk-6KpnYuQvVPPEQ-mRuwOI4j4S23w4iHfnQ0xMNA&e=>

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Gabriel Alcaras
Postdoc Researcher - Ecologies of LLMs Practices (EL2MP)
https://ecologiesofllm.medialab.sciencespo.fr/
médialab - Sciences Po
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