Knowledge as Collective Method and Practice

Description

Science claims anew authority against fake news. At the same time, science calls for participation of “citizens”, “stakeholders”, “activists” to participate in collective knowledge projects. Both of these moves are aspects of the present crisis of democratization of science. It creates a major opportunity for STS to reflect on where it stands. Especially feminist STS has always been related to activism, some even claim that feminist theory is “intellectual activism” (Collins 2012). I will examine this positioning by delving into the example of feminist resistance to reproductive and genetic engineering “FINRRAGE” (Stevienna de Saille 2017). De Saille shows that FINRRAGE’s cognitive praxis was not only based on an oppositional consciousness, but elaborated an oppositional “conscienceness” as “the combination of raised consciousness and a moral imperative towards particular kinds of action, a general and transferable cognitive meta-frame“ (De Saille 2017, 228). In recent epistemological reflections on activism against algorithmic discrimination and the enhancement of inequalities by digitization, a shift appeared in positioning data activism as “a series of nuanced phenomena that position themselves in a continuum between contestation and recognition” and grassroots data politics as “affirmative engagement with data” on one side and “resistance to massive data collection” on the other. (Stefania Milan/Lonneke van der Velden 2016, 61) In my paper these two initiatives towards sociotechnical endeavors of major transformative change are presented in their ambivalent positioning. My analysis draws on feminist epistemology as an epistemic strategy to make sense of knowledge projects within major relations of power. I connect epistemology with ethics to develop a new understanding of sociotechnoscientific activism. Thereby, I also draw on „decolonial, feminist, intersectional ethics, aesthetics and politics of AI” (Paola Ricaurte Quijano 2022, 739).

Period	29 Nov 2023
Event title	Digging Where We Stand: Activism, Community and the Politics of STS. STS Austria Conference 2023
Event type	Conference
Location	AustriaShow on map