[Commlist] CFP - 4S 2026 – Technopower – Technoscientific futures

Gustavo Ferreira and José Cláudio S. Castanheira are coordinating a 
panel at the 4S 2026 – TECHNOPOWER – TECHNOSCIENTIFIC FUTURES meeting, 
organized by the SOCIETY FOR SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE. The meeting will 
take place from October 7th to 10th in Toronto, Canada. Below is a 
description of the panel and the link for submitting abstracts of up to 
250 words:

*Open Panel: Technocoloniality: Global Inequalities Within Technological 
Models And Futures*

Coordination:

Jose Claudio Castanheira - Universidade Federal Fluminense (Brazil)

Gustavo Ferreira - University of Toronto (Canada)

Technologies respond to social needs that are not always born or 
perceived spontaneously, but are often created alongside the technology 
itself. Every technological innovation involves adaptation at various 
levels – cognitive, cultural, in terms of infrastructure, etc. – so that 
the social body understands its functioning and necessity.

When understood as systems, technologies present a complexity and 
pervasiveness capable of affecting various social contexts. However, a 
minor segment of society defines technological systems that favour its 
position of power, as their implementation reinforces or creates new 
forms of inequality. While technologies are socially constructed, the 
premise of large universal systems only deepens exclusion and imbalance 
between people, social groups, and countries. It is crucial to highlight 
the contradictory role that certain technologies play: designed, on the 
one hand, for the benefit of society, yet also generating and 
normalizing relations of inequality across class, gender, ethnicity, and 
age, among others.

As proposed by scholars of the Decolonial Turn, relations of inequality, 
oppression, and exclusion are a continuation of historical colonialism. 
The theme of technologies is increasingly unavoidable in discussions of 
power, sovereignty, and economic development, so this panel aims to 
broaden the debate by inviting the inclusion of frequently neglected 
themes on how peripheral societies negotiate, adhere to, or are forced 
to adhere to technological models, as if they were merely part of a 
“neutral” technical solution. The panel proposes the notion of 
technocoloniality as a fruitful basis for analyzing and debating the 
role of technologies on the demands for infrastructure and their global 
ecological impact, imaginaries of progress and the future from the 
periphery, the socio-historical and geopolitical struggles across social 
groups, the reconfiguration of production chains and the meaning of 
work, as well as contemporary subjectivity and sociability. We welcome 
proposals from communicative, historical, sociological, philosophical, 
and other perspectives.

This is the link to submit abstracts: 
https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php 
<https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_toronto.php>



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