Deadline Extension: 4S Open Panels (Toronto 2026)

[Emma Kowal]

Please forward to your colleagues, departments, centres, and anyone else you think might be interested (and apologies for any cross-posting)

Dear all,

4S has extended the deadline for Open Panel submissions until 9th February 2026. 

The conference is being held in Toronto, 7-10th Oct 2026.

Conference Theme: TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures

The 50th Anniversary for the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S): calls for presentations, panels, and adjacent gatherings that engage our theme of TechnoPower. Science, technology, and innovation are not neutral; as STS scholars, we understand them as socially, culturally, and economically constructed and deeply entangled with a specific form of technoscientific power. The theme emphasizes that money and wealth are increasingly shaping our technoscientific futures, raising urgent analytical and normative questions about how to reclaim power from “tech” billionaires and oligarchs. At this critical juncture, our task is not only to critique and demystify technoscience but also transform how others perceive and engage with technoscience. From the reinforcement of harmful value(s) systems to the assetization of knowledge and the erosion of ecological and social justice, a specifically technoscientific capitalism has embedded market logics and elite control into our knowledge institutions, innovation choices, and into technological change itself. Yet, as we also know so well, technoscience is always contested, and STS offers plural and grounded alternatives to understanding and reframing technoscience, from citizen science to community engagement in innovation to Indigenous knowledge. A key challenge now is to accelerate our interventions into public, policy, and political debate by using our empirical, analytical, and normative tools to shift technoscientific futures away from the dictates of a wealthy few towards a technoscience that fosters collective wellbeing, justice, and sustainability.

You can submit your Open Panel proposals here: https://4sonline.org/call_for_open_panels_toronto.php (deadline: 2nd February 2026)

Look forward to seeing you there!

Kean Birch

Conference Co-Chair with Alison Harvey and Sergio Sismondo: https://4sonline.org/about_the_conference_toronto.php

Important Notice: The contents of this email are intended solely for the named addressee and are confidential; any unauthorised use, reproduction or storage of the contents is expressly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and any attachments immediately and advise the sender by return email or telephone.

Deakin University does not warrant that this email and any attachments are error or virus free.