Submissions
Call for Abstracts
The conference is designed as a meeting point for different perspectives – academic, practitioner and activist, as well as engineering. We seek a diverse set of submissions, including but not limited to: theoretical accounts, empirical & case studies, interactive presentations & installations, and technology prototypes & demos.
Submissions can be made to one of the tracks described below or to a general session. Best abstracts’ authors will be invited to submit a full paper to be published as an edited volume.
Submission format: an extended abstract (up to 700 words, max 1 figure with caption, max 3 references) in .pdf format.
Submission deadline: June 8th, 2025 (Anywhere on Earth)
Tracks
Chairs: Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, Agnieszka Rychwalska
Current narratives about digital technologies are dominated by negative effects that mainstream platforms have on social well-being. From disinformation & polarization on social media, to biases and stereotypes in generative models, social harms related to ICTs are now well documented. In this panel we want to challenge that perspective and showcase examples and use cases where technologies were a component of success. We seek submissions that present theoretical and empirical work as well as demos and prototypes of tech solutions that helped communities organize, gain a voice and challenge the status quo.
Technology for empowerment
Smart cities and communities
Chairs: Anna Domaradzka, Sławomir Kalinowski
Cities and communities are undergoing major changes due to the ongoing implementation of smart technologies. The growing popularity of LLM, sensing technologies, drones, smart cameras, digital interfaces, chatbots, open data, blockchain, and so on, have created new conditions for smart governance in the cities and local communities. As a result, various stakeholders need to adjust to technological advancements to stay relevant. This shift towards digitalization comes with a promise of enhancing citizens well-being, increased efficiency, and individualization of services. However, it also presents significant challenges at the intersection of technology and society, economy and politics. Among others, digital technologies may impact different groups of citizens in different ways: empowering some, while attenuating the voices of others.
This track aims to discuss current trends in the field of smart development, focusing on individual and community-level impact of new technological solutions. Our goal is to understand how new technologies can influence the decision-making processes, livability of local communities as well as the right to the city and well-being of various groups of residents.
Chairs: Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer, David Dueñas-Cid
As digital and data-driven technologies continue to transform social life, they bring with them both new possibilities and new challenges for gender equality. This session invites contributions that explore the complex and evolving relationships between gender, technology, and society from sociological, feminist, and intersectional perspectives.
Generative AI is the latest addition (while we await quantum computing) to the complex network of technologies that, in recent years, have been transforming the way we understand and experience social life. Generative tools are increasingly used in various processes (e.g., hiring or monitoring) and may reproduce preexisting gender biases or introduce new ones. Beyond AI, the use of digital technologies has influenced the ways feminism is performed, femininity is portrayed, and new forms of cyberharassment and cyberviolence against women have emerged.
The list of intersections between technology and gender is long, and we do not aim to exhaust it in a single track. Rather, our goal is to bring together contributions that address these intersections from a sociological perspective. Contributions may be theoretical or empirical in nature and can include (but are not limited to) the following topics:
• Digital sociological theories and feminism
• Gendered impacts of AI use
• New forms of cyberviolence against women
• Feminist sociological digital methods, reflexive and co-productive research practices
• The role of sociology in fostering digital justice, equity, and activism
• Design of inclusive and anti-discriminatory technologies
Gender & Technology in Sociology
Skill’s demand for digital transformation
Chairs: Ewa Gałecka-Burdziak, Karolina Bolesta
In light of the rapid changes in the labour market undergoing digital transformation, the skill-set possessed by individuals determines their employability options. Job offers are more often described in terms of demanded skills and not occupations or tasks as it was the case in the past. Hence, research on unmet labour demand (job offers, vacancies) seems especially relevant as a diagnosis of the labour demand in light of technological changes and as a recommendation for shaping the supply of individuals’ skills to meet labour market’s demand. This track aims to analyze the changes of labor market demand in the era of digitization, with a special focus on how employability is affected by intersectionality.
Chair: Miren Gutiérrez Almazor
The rise of digital technologies has transformed how information is created, disseminated, and consumed, posing unprecedented challenges to democratic integrity. The proliferation of deepfakes and manipulated content, facilitated by social platforms, has created an environment conducive to the mass dissemination of disinformation. This phenomenon not only erodes public trust in institutions and media but also has the potential to unduly influence electoral processes, public debates, and the formation of public opinion. Gender disinformation, in particular, targets women in politics, affecting their participation and representation in democratic processes.
This track explores how disinformation impacts women’s political participation and how technological tools can both exacerbate and mitigate these effects, with the aim to:
• Enhance understanding of gender disinformation’s impact on women’s political participation.
• Develop strategies to combat gender disinformation and promote women’s engagement in democratic processes.
• Strengthen collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and civil society to address these challenges.
We welcome theoretical, empirical, or methodological proposals using qualitative, quantitative, or mixed approaches. Comparative studies offering perspectives on different digital platforms or geographies are particularly valued.
Contributions may explore one of the following or similar themes:
• Dynamics of Gender Disinformation: Analysis of disinformation campaigns targeting women in politics, including their impact on electoral processes and public discourse.
• Impact on Women’s Political Participation: Examination of how gender disinformation affects women’s engagement in democratic processes and strategies to enhance their participation.
• Media Literacy and Resilience: Educational programs and civil society initiatives aimed at fostering critical thinking and resilience against gender disinformation.
• Technological Challenges and Solutions: The role of AI in creating and detecting gender disinformation, and the challenges posed by deepfakes and synthetic content.
• Institutional Responses: Analysis of governmental initiatives and legal frameworks to combat gender disinformation, and their effectiveness.
Disinformation and Gender: Challenges to Women’s Participation in Democratic Processes
Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy, Technology and Power
Chair: Maria Tzanou
This panel explores how digital technologies intersect with sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing as well as autonomy and, ultimately, power. Women’s sexual and reproductive health worldwide is characterised by substantial knowledge gaps and under-resourced and over-stretched public health services. Women face uphill battles when seeking diagnosis and treatment for gynaecological symptoms and conditions and a widely recognised tendency to question whether they are trustworthy narrators of their own health and pain, particularly regarding conditions related to the (dis)functioning of their reproductive organs. Many women and girls regularly face sexual and reproductive crises, such as period poverty, unplanned pregnancy and sexual violence. The above are linked to structural discrimination and fostered by patriarchal oppression and pervasive gender stereotypes that result in the instrumentalization of women’s bodies. Rising fundamentalisms, around the world target sexual and reproductive health rights and autonomy and politicize women’s bodies once again.
The panel invites contributions from a variety of backgrounds that focus on the role of technology in exacerbating or providing solutions for the above issues. Interdisciplinary contributions and contributions focusing on the Global South are particularly welcome. Contributions may relate to some of the following questions:
• How do digital technologies contribute to gender inequalities understood from an intersectional perspective? How do they lead to vulnerabilities and affect substantive equality? What steps could be taken to mitigate these problems by regulators, communities, the civil society and the private sector?
• Could digital technologies be designed to address gender subordination and ensure equity and autonomy with regard to sexual and reproductive rights?
• How can women and more broadly marginalized communities actively participate in designing digital (sexual and reproductive) health solutions?
• Does the existence of a ‘digital divide’ hinder technological solutions? Are there effective ways to address this?
• How do gender norms and roles influence the design, development, and deployment of digital technologies? What relations of power emerge in this context and how could these be understood under critical and feminist frameworks?
• How should data collection, sharing, and governance be structured to achieve intersectional data justice? What role could different societal actors play in this field?
If your research or case does not fit any of the above panels but relates to the conference topic, please submit to this track. Please make sure that your submission addresses the challenges and questions that the conference tackles.