[Commlist] Open Panel Call for contributions: "Digital Technologies in Transformations of Emotional Service Work" at the EASST/4S Conference

We are inviting submissions to our open panel “*Digital Technologies in 
Transformations of Emotional Service Work*” at the 4S/EASST Conference, 
which will take place in Amsterdam, 16-19 July 2024.

Submission Deadline: February 12, 2024.

Short Abstract:

*Service work is increasingly mediated by digital technologies. How are 
human and non-human work translated, augmented and automated? How are 
service assemblages reconfigured, and consumption experiences changed? 
What are the implications for labour, communication, affect and social 
interaction?*

Long Abstract:

Digital technologies are increasingly mediating service work: QR codes, 
tablets, restaurant delivery robots, gig economy apps, chatbots and 
artificial intelligence. These technologies have implications for 
labour, communication, affect, and social interactions. They involve 
translations between human and non-human work, reconfigurations of 
service assemblages and changes in experiences of consumption. Service 
work was famously conceptualised by Hochschild (1983) as the 
commercialisation of feeling by which employers exploit the emotional 
labour of employees, typically women, in front-facing roles that involve 
customer interaction. Communication is key to the performance of 
emotional service work. Service involves exchanging social cues and 
making complex and relational decisions in the back and forth flow of 
social interaction. As service is remodelled through automation and/or 
augmentation, human workers are repositioned in relation to service 
roles that they previously performed. At the same time, they must 
negotiate the emotional and communicative capacities and constraints of 
other service-performing actors. In some contexts, service work is 
automated. For example, when social robots are introduced, questions 
come up as to who and how the emotional and communicative work of 
service is performed. To what extent is this work carried out or shared 
by robots in service roles? In other contexts, emotional service work is 
augmented, such as in gig economy apps programmed to manage the user 
experiences of workers and consumers. What are the affective features 
and/or expressions of digital technologies in service work? We are 
inviting papers that report on and theorise the digital reconfigurations 
of service technologies, models, roles and practices. This panel will 
bring STS into conversation with human-machine communication and affect 
studies. We invite engagement that conceptualises these transformations 
from multiple approaches in terms of but not limited to assemblages, 
translations, power relations, stabilisations and reconfigurations of 
service models.

Convenors

Dr Justine Humphry (justine.humphry /at/ sydney.edu.au) 
<mailto:(justine.humphry /at/ sydney.edu.au)>, University of Sydney

Dr Chris Chesher (chris.chesher /at/ sydney.edu.au) 
<mailto:(chris.chesher /at/ sydney.edu.au)>, University of Sydney

Dr Arisa Ema (aema /at/ g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp) <mailto:(aema /at/ g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)>, 
University of Tokyo

You can submit abstracts of up to 250 words here:

https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst-4s2024/p/14207 
<https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst-4s2024/p/14207>

More details about the conference:https://www.easst4s2024.net/ 
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/yPpECE8wmrtlzMlDWcwGaA9?domain=easst4s2024.net/>

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.


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