Spring in Vienna & Berlin

In March and April, I’ll be attending wonderful events in Vienna and Berlin.

On 15-16 March, the University of Vienna is celebrating 30 years of ‘Science & Technology Studies’. That’s an impressive achievement, given the ways in which universities tend to re-organise. I’ll be joining colleagues there, first, on 15 March to talk about ‘how STS matters’ – to universities, to society. On 16 March, I’ll kick off the ‘multi-voice’ session about ‘imagining techno-natural cultures’. Of course, this is like bringing coals to Newcastle (or cake to Vienna in this case). Ulrike Felt and her colleagues have already contributed so much to our understanding of sociotechnical imaginaries.

On 27 April, the ‘imaginaries’ theme will be continued at the workshop hosted by the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG). The workshop has the wonderful title of: “We are on a mission”. Exploring the role of future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology. The workshop is organised by Astrid Mager & Christian Katzenbach. Abstracts can be submitted until 2 March. More details here.

The provisional title of my keynote is ‘Imagine you are an iPhone, recharging’. During the lecture I will explore not only the imaginaries deployed by policy makers and industry, but how those imaginaries enter our everyday lives.