[Commlist] CFP 4S panel on AI & robot autonomy

*Invitation to open panel*: *Approaches to autonomy for AI and robotics *

Open Panel for 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) 2025 Conference

This is an interdisciplinary panel. Communication and media scholars are 
encouraged to submit

Deadline for Abstracts: January 31, 2025

In person conference: September 3 – 7, 2025

Seattle, WA USA

Submit abstract to: 
https://www.xcdsystem.com/4sonline/abstract/abstract.cfm 
<https://www.xcdsystem.com/4sonline/abstract/abstract.cfm>

(Note: you must create an account with 4S and follow instructions to 
submit an abstract for this panel)

Panel chairs: Chris Chesher & Grant Bollmer

More information: (chris.chesher /at/ sydney.edu.au) 
<mailto:(chris.chesher /at/ sydney.edu.au)>

*Abstract*

This panel critically examines autonomy in AI and robotics as a 
contested concept shaped by engineering standards, cultural values, and 
ethical frameworks. We invite contributions exploring how technological 
autonomy is constructed, symbolised, and regulated in society.

*Call for contributions to our panel*

Autonomy in AI and robotics is often celebrated as a milestone of 
technological achievement, yet this panel seeks to critically examine 
and problematise the concept. Rather than taking autonomy as a given 
attribute, we invite scholars to interrogate its construction, 
constraints, and contested meanings across different contexts.

What does it mean to claim that robots or AI systems are ‘autonomous’? 
How do engineering definitions of autonomy – often centred on metrics of 
machine independence or decision-making capacity – align or clash with 
broader cultural, ethical, and symbolic interpretations? From a social 
and cultural perspective, autonomy in machines holds symbolic weight, 
evoking questions of control, agency, and even personhood. We encourage 
contributions with STS approaches that explore autonomy as a relational 
and networked concept, co-constructed with human actors, institutions, 
and socio-technical environments and those who advocate robot or AI 
exceptionalism within ethics – viewpoints that argue robots or AI may 
warrant unique ethical consideration due to their distinctive roles and 
capacities. Topics for discussion may include:

• The socio-technical production and performance of autonomy in robotics 
and AI

• Symbolic and cultural values attached to human and non-human autonomy

• Engineering metrics of autonomy and their intersections with social 
and ethical meanings

• Ethical frameworks that call for, or reject, the exceptional treatment 
of robots

• Political, economic, and institutional factors and the implications of 
autonomy in practice

• Human-robot relationships and their impacts on concepts of agency, 
control, and responsibility

Join us for a critical discussion that reconsiders the multifaceted and 
often ambiguous meanings of autonomy as we navigate an increasingly 
AI-driven world.

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