[Commlist] CFP: Disruption and Its Discontents: Ethics, Politics, and Epistemology of Disruptive Technology

*Disruption and Its Discontents: Ethics, Politics, and Epistemology of 
Disruptive Technology*

*/A two-day symposium hosted by Academic Writing Lab (AWL) and Dept. 
Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), IIIT- Delhi August 19-20, 2022 /*

The internet, social media, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, 
have all been labeled as disruptive technologies. By using computer 
systems to perform tasks that usually require human understanding, these 
technologies disrupt our ways of being and functioning in the world, the 
ways we interact with it, and come to know it and form beliefs. On one 
hand these technologies come with the promise of emancipation due to its 
potential economic impact, on the other it comes with new and unexpected 
challenges due to its capacity to disrupt. As our life comes to be 
organized around technology, it is not surprising that whenever new 
technology enters our lives, it effects the social arrangements around 
which we build our lives. This necessitates a critical inquiry into 
digitalization and the kind of reorientation in the social world it 
brings with it. Technological development is a social process, which is 
not always autonomous, but rather dependent upon the interplay of 
socio-political forces and institutions in society. Disruptive 
technologies do not operate in a vacuum, they occur and re-occurs in a 
social setting, and certain elements of technological change can be more 
or less disruptive.

  Discontent is a common response to disruption and is generated by the 
same processes that generate disruption. Sometimes it is transitional 
when social norms and the social order adjusts to the pace of 
technology. But often it is more fundamental when it not only raises 
ethical and moral questions based on value alignment, but also epistemic 
questions about how we come to know and understand the world. Similarly, 
discontent is expressed over distributive questions such as control over 
resources and distribution of burden and benefits of disruption. 
Discontent is expressed sometimes as a form of disrupting the progress 
of technology, but at times it is expressed as dissent that is critical 
of its consequences, and at times as disagreement that challenges the 
orientation of the technology in the world.

This CFP addresses some of the intellectual prerequisites for critical 
engagement with digital disruptions and the spaces of discontents within 
its ambit. It looks into themes such as social media platforms response 
to its democratic discontents, the pedagogical implications of 
algorithmic knowledge and the virtual self, ethics of digital 
identities, as well as the impact of digitalization on academic 
professions, but is not limited to them. Instead, we encourage authors 
to tease out the philosophical underpinning of the digital space 
embracing its nuanced interplay with discontent, insulting a deeply 
involved exploration of the epistemologies of disruptive technology.

In this conference, we will explore the ethics, politics, and the 
epistemology of disruptive technology. Potential contributions can focus 
on the disruption, or the discontent caused by technology.

*Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:*

  • Communication technologies toward freedom and democracy
• Epistemology of disruptive technology
• Artificial Intelligence as a challenge to ethics of work culture
• Idea of revolution in the digital age
• Discontent and the digital
  • Digital and the question of Power
  • Algorithmic knowledge and art of prediction
• Ethics of Digital identities
• Ethics of Digital Dissent
• Digital and the idea of the public

*Submission to the colloquium can be made either as a panel or as 
individual papers. *

*Panel Proposal*: A panel proposal will ideally include 3 papers (for a 
two-hour slot) with a 500-word summary of the panel and 750–1000-word 
abstracts for each proposed paper in the panel. This should be sent as a 
single PDF file.

*Paper Proposa*l An individual paper proposal should include an extended 
abstract of 500 words for a 30-minute slot (20 minutes presentation and 
10 minutes discussion) by July 10, 2022. Notification of acceptance will 
be sent out by 20 July 2022. The selected participants will be requested 
to send a 2000- word short paper by 5 August 2022.

*Graduate Student Workshop Session *This session shall focus on critical 
discussions around the topics, panels, and ideas presented in the 
symposium. The aim is to inculcate dialogues and conversations based on 
the interesting and relevant concepts, which require more exploration. 
We invite students, scholars, professionals across all fields of life to 
apply if they are interested in in-dept critical discussions on the 
theme. Selected participants will get a chance to interact with the 
invited speakers and are expected to produce a short report which will 
be published with due credit on the AWL blog. Please note, the minimum 
educational qualification to apply is a post graduate degree. To apply, 
please send a 150 words statement of intent indicating why you are a 
suitable candidate for the workshop session as a single PDF file attachment.

The current theme of the symposium builds upon the inaugural symposium 
on “Crisis of Truth: The digital era and the future of knowledge” held 
on 27- 28 August 2021. We insist on continuing our discussions along 
these lines, integrating newer threads of theories and concepts on the 
framework digital technologies and society. Selected papers from the 
symposium will then be invited to submit their final papers for 
consideration for publication in a major journal or with a reputed 
publisher. The symposium will be held at the*Department of Social 
Sciences and Humanities (SSH), Indraprastha Institute of Information 
Technology, Delhi (IIIT-Delhi), India.* Given the circumstances, most 
likely we will host it in the hybrid model.

*Please send your panel/paper/workshop session proposal as an attachment 
prepared for blind review to (awl /at/ iiitd.ac.in) <mailto:(awl /at/ iiitd.ac.in)> 
and (binoj /at/ iiitd.ac.in) <mailto:(binoj /at/ iiitd.ac.in)>. *
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