[Commlist] CfP 4S Conference 2021: “Corona Truth Wars: Testing and Contesting Knowledge in a Hyper-Mobile Pandemic”

CfP 4S Conference 2021: “Corona Truth Wars: Testing and Contesting 
Knowledge in a Hyper-Mobile Pandemic”


Jaron Harambam and Ehler Voss would like to invite you to submit 
abstracts for the panel *“46. Corona Truth Wars: Testing and Contesting 
Knowledge in a Hyper-Mobile Pandemic”* at this year’s 4S-conference 
<https://www.4sonline.org/meeting/>in Toronto from October 6-9, 2021.


*Abstract:*

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic created a global crisis challenging humankind to 
develop as quickly as possible reliable knowledge about the virus and 
its devastating effects on our bodies and societies in order to minimize 
such harms. This situation of great uncertainty and enormous stakes 
incited a historically unique international knowledge producing effort 
by institutionalized scientists and research groups. While debate and 
disagreement exists within these scientific communities, more 
controversial are the various competing “outside” forms and sources of 
information on the virus and its mitigation strategies. Some are clear 
disinformation campaigns or far-fetched conspiracy theories, others are 
legitimate challenges to the temporary status quo. In the hyper-mobile 
context of knowledge production during an evolving pandemic, it is often 
hard to tell the difference. Questions such as ‘what information is 
reliable?’, ‘which experts should we follow?’, and ‘what (epistemic) 
authorities are to trust?’, take center stage in public debates. 
Prevalent clear-cut distinctions between “real” knowledge controversies 
and “fake” disruptions of scientific progress obscure the fact that the 
global quest for truthful knowledge about the virus is entangled with 
various (geo)political dynamics, government policy pressures, media 
reporting, platform moderation and public understandings of it all. STS 
scholars are perfectly equipped with concepts, theories and methods to 
help understand these complex dynamics involving uncertainty, changing 
insights, and (covert) manipulation. In this panel we invite scholars 
working on such “corona truth wars”: we welcome both empirical and 
theoretical studies on the cultures, politics and technologies of 
today’s corona knowledge contestations.


Further reading: 
https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/99550 
<https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/99550>


Submissions: https://www.4sonline.org/meeting/call-for-submissions/ 
<https://www.4sonline.org/meeting/call-for-submissions/>


Deadline: March 8, 2021

Contacts: Jaron Harambam / (jaron.harambam /at/ gmail.com)
Ehler Voss / (ehler.voss /at/ uni-bremen.de)


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