[Commlist] CfP "Infrastructures of Autonomy"

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Infrastructures of Autonomy

An International Conference in Berlin, Germany

23-25 November 2022

Call for Contributions (by 20 June 2022)

HIIG Berlin, ZeM Potsdam

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Autonomy has been a multifaceted term for centuries that was and remains 
a key concept in discussions about individuals and societies alike. More 
recently, autonomy has gained a renewed relevance and additional 
meanings in the context of technical innovation, where it is 
ubiquitously employed in variations of “autonomous systems”. It is often 
associated with independently moving or self-controlling machines such 
as drones, vehicles or robots, or more generally with a wide range of 
automation processes. In this broad understanding, 'autonomous' becomes 
an attribute for (artificial) intelligence or (machine) learning and is 
used synonymously with self-determination or adaptability. At the same 
time, the term invokes (at least) one other meaning: a relational 
understanding of autonomy that denotes individual and collective 
processes that are embedded in infrastructures and conditioned by them. 
It is only in relation to and in the context of media, rules, norms, 
laws, practices, architectures, materialities or machines that the idea 
of autonomy acquires any meaning at all.

Against this backdrop the Infrastructures of Autonomy conference’s main 
objective is to address said conditions, structures and relations that 
constitute both human and machine autonomy. This also entails the 
various interpretations of the concept of autonomy.

In particular, papers are invited that address the following core themes:

•             Conceptual aspects: This core theme reflects on the 
historical and philosophical roots that shape today’s debates on 
autonomy and automation. We pick up on the feminist discourse of 
“relational autonomy” that established the irreducibility of 
interdependence and relatedness for normative theories of autonomy. We 
posit that there is a troubling tension between industrial and digital 
automation that benefits consumerist subjects and the struggle for 
autonomisation that is dependent upon the suspension of automatic 
responses made by moral subjects. This struggle has always relied on 
external means of suspension and establishing new habits. For example, 
what is the contribution of technical, economic or public 
infrastructures to the normative claims and ethical or political 
practices of autonomisation? How does the extended conception of 
rationality that explicitly includes artefacts relate to the findings of 
infrastructure studies? Is autonomy always “scaffolded”? What can 
automated data capture and processing contribute to the struggles for 
autonomisation? Or does this automation of so many aspects of life 
rather interfere with these struggles? Lastly, if autonomisation depends 
on uncovering and suspending habits in the sense of dis-automatisation, 
how can the conspicuous tension between this dis-automatisation and the 
automatisation of infrastructures be conceived without falling back into 
a simple opposition?

•             Technologies: This core theme is primarily driven by the 
idea of so-called “autonomous systems”, a term often used to describe a 
degree of (machine) agency without human oversight or control. These 
phenomena necessitate a reflection of agential hybrids – intricate 
human/machine networks of distributed agency and responsibility – and 
lead to questions on the varying degrees of automation and the contexts 
and structures of human/machine relations and interaction. What are the 
conditions of autonomy in “autonomous systems” – from planning and 
implementation to interaction with them; is it conceivable at all to 
make autonomy programmable? Which concept of learning is applied in 
“self-learning systems”? We are also interested in exploring the 
configurations of machine autonomy, may it be enacted or prescribed to 
these technical objects, and understanding its relationship(s) to human 
autonomy in the varying contexts that exist today.

•             Bodies: The third core theme focuses on the somatic 
aspects and cognitive requirements of (human) autonomy. This refers to 
those premises of autonomy that are associated with socio-cultural 
constructs of human dis/ability, but also includes the role of affects, 
non-conscious cognitions and ‘automatic’ habits that counter the 
prevalent idea of the conscious and autonomous mind. The material 
dimension of technology plays an important role in these considerations, 
namely in settings of human-machine interaction, leading to questions of 
interface design, the ‘bodily’ presence of machines and the complex 
aspect of their potential to enable or constrain human agency and 
autonomy. We are interested in discussing how infrastructures in 
interaction with bodies shape, enable or prohibit autonomy; what 
performances of bodily autonomy might look like; and how this 
entanglement and enactment changes with new mechanical and digital 
infrastructures. In particular, we would like to address how the 
practice of care for one's own and other bodies is changing under the 
conditions of a computerised world.

All these major themes are to be understood as highly interconnected 
with the effect of mutually constituting dynamic infrastructures of 
autonomy.

We believe the discourse on infrastructures of autonomy is highly 
relevant beyond a theoretical perspective, since it touches upon issues 
with high stakes and severe consequences, such as:

•             autonomous weapon systems

•             robotics and smart technologies in the field of care work

•             health care applications and technologies

•             autonomous systems in the field of machine learning

•             smart housing and smart cities

•             …

We welcome contributions from scholars of diverse disciplines, such as 
the arts, cognitive science, computer science, cultural studies, design 
studies, literature and film studies, media and communication studies, 
philosophy, psychology, political science, science and technology 
studies or sociology. Interdisciplinary approaches (e.g., those 
combining social, cultural and technical perspectives) are particularly 
encouraged.

Submission process

•             Abstracts of approximately 300 to 500 words in length 
(excl. references) should be submitted no later than 20 June 2022 to 
(autonomy /at/ hiig.de)

•             Speakers will be notified by 30 July 2022

•             No payment from the authors will be required

It is planned to publish selected papers.

If you have any questions, you can contact the conference organisers via 
(autonomy /at/ hiig.de).

For more information, visit our website at 
hiig.de/events/infrastructuresofautonomy.



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