Technologies of Social Order

The Technologies of Social Order Research Group is an assemblage of critical scholars examining the interrelation of technology with social, economic and political power. Its members share a commitment to challenging narratives that make power relationships invisible through digital transformations and other processes. The group consists of members with a range of backgrounds, joined by their interest in interdisciplinary research into social relationships and societal orders that imagine, materialize, and constitute governance and policy making. The group acknowledges the inherent politicisation of digitalisation and therefore challenges dominant ideologies such as the economic rationales of efficiency and optimisation. As such, the group analyses topics such as political economy, the future of work, security and surveillance, justice and policing, politics, state-making, as well as resistance and activism. Therefore, the focus of the group is on developing societal critique, rather than solution-oriented research. The group is a collective tool for members to present and refine their research and writing, and to read and discuss important and new articles and books in regular meetings with colleagues to stay at the cutting edge of their fields. At the same time, the group is open to other forms of collective intellectual exchange.

The group is nested in the TiP (Technology in Practice) section at the ITU that is organised to research the intersection of information technology (IT) and society. The Technologies of Social Order Research Group is open to anyone working at the ITU (and beyond) drawn by their insistence in critical research about the unequal distribution of power in technoscientific implementation, and technologies enforcing, reproducing and/or transforming the political, social, or economic order. Members approach research in solidarity with subjugated populations and abstain from purely extractivist research. The research group should strive to cultivate an inclusive environment by creating internal solidarity and producing collective spaces for discussion and theoretical diversity.