CfP | Open Panel (EASST 2026) - Constrained Futures under Goal-Oriented Research Policies

[Sergio Urueña]

CFP EASST 2026

Open Panel 197 - "Constrained Futures under Goal-Oriented Research Policies: How Hegemonic Normative Frameworks (Do Not) Transform Research and Innovation”

Kraków (8–11 September 2026)

AGH University of Krakow

Panel rationale:

Over the last two decades, research and innovation (R&I) policies have increasingly been reoriented towards the pursuit of predefined societal goals, such as addressing climate change, fostering sustainability, or tackling major health challenges. In the European context, this orientation has been articulated through key policy frameworks such as the Lund Declaration (2009), Horizon Europe missions, and their convergence with global agendas like the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While these goal-oriented research policies are often presented as transformative, inclusive, and forward-looking, they also rely on hegemonic normative frameworks that predefine which socio-technical futures are considered desirable, plausible, and actionable. These frameworks shape the directionalities of science and technology, delimit acceptable forms of knowledge production, and structure governance arrangements—often in ways that constrain rather than open up alternative futures.

The panel invites contributions that critically examine how such hegemonic normative frameworks operate across different geographical, institutional, and epistemic contexts. We are particularly interested in analyses that explore the tensions between proclaimed transformative ambitions and the actual socio-technical, epistemic, and political effects of goal-oriented research policies.

We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions addressing, among others, the following questions:

• What normative frameworks currently condition and constrain research and innovation across different policy, institutional, and regional settings?

• How do these frameworks shape the directionalities, modalities, and governance dynamics of science and technology, and how do they fix what counts as desirable and plausible futures?

• Whose futures are being articulated, stabilized, or marginalized through goal-oriented research policies—and who benefits or is harmed by them?

• How do scientific and technological practices themselves contribute to delimiting sociotechnical horizons and future imaginaries?

• What conceptual tools and methodological approaches can be mobilized to identify, assess, and potentially transform hegemonic normative frameworks and their associated practices of futurity?

The panel is open to scholars working in Science and Technology Studies (STS), including philosophy of science and technology, innovation studies, sociology of knowledge, policy studies, and related fields. Contributions may draw on qualitative empirical research, comparative policy analysis, conceptual or theoretical work, or reflexive methodological interventions.

Convenors: 

Hannot Rodríguez (University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU)

Sergio Urueña (University of La Laguna)

Oihana Iglesias-Carrillo (University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU)

David-Álvaro Martínez (University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU)

Submission details

• Format: Individual paper presentations

• Abstract length:

• Short abstract: max. 300 characters

• Long abstract: max. 250 words

• Submission deadline: 09 March 2026

• Conference dates: 08–11 September 2026

• Location: Kraków, Poland

We particularly encourage contributions that engage critically with concepts such as missions, challenges, responsibility, anticipation, participation, inclusion, and transformation, and that reflect on their role in shaping constrained or alternative futures for research and innovation.