Hi all, Alongside other fantastic 4S panels being circulated, sharing a reminder for the open panel 213 on "Counting matters: The ontologies of (ac)counting with and beyond data.” This will be a hybrid panel, with opportunities to receive engaged feedback from discussants. If you work on counting and/or data practices, we hope you will consider submitting to the panel. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 30 April 2026. ---- *[Panel: 213] Counting matters: The ontologies of (ac)counting with and beyond data* Techniques and technologies of counting have roots in colonial practices that aimed to ‘see’ populations in specific ways. Such acts of “seeing” were never merely descriptive, whether undertaken by colonial states or markets (Scott 1998; MacKenzie 2008; Fourcade and Healy 2017). Rather, they actively shaped how populations were governed and valued. Even as data-driven technologies and their processing capacities have evolved, these histories continue to shape how states, markets, civil society, and communities perceive citizens, workers, consumers, and themselves (Sriraman 2018; Eubanks 2017; Noble 2018). Be it national citizenship registries, Covid-19 dashboards, targeted advertising, or productivity metrics, these contemporary projects are deemed apolitical and neutral tools for impartial investigations and ‘evidence-based’ governance. Crucially, this framing treats counting as descriptive rather than constitutive, obscuring the logics (and politics) through which certain realities are made to count over others. Against this backdrop, this panel invites critical explorations of contemporary modes of (ac)counting with and beyond data. Here, we understand counting as encompassing the norms and practices of enumeration through which our worlds are made to count and data, as encompassing not only datasets and metrics but also qualitative accounts, records, proxies, and other material–discursive forms. Moving beyond dominant framings of counting as problems of surveillance and control, we problematise counting as world-making (Verran 2001) — what ways of being and becoming are counted and accounted for? How are contemporary data-driven technologies implicated in these processes, co-producing these realities? We invite contributions, including empirical studies, theoretical and methodological reflections that explore themes including: How are data-driven practices and methods deployed to enumerate various spheres of everyday life? What actors, institutions, and relations are caught within and shaped by contemporary modes of counting? What specific counts are produced, normalised, or overlooked by these practices? And how do they (re)make the worlds they enumerate? ----- Best, Srravya On Mon, 23 Mar 2026 at 15:32, Srravya C <srravya.c@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone,
We invite abstract submissions (250 words) to our 4S open panel on "Counting matters: The ontologies of (ac)counting with and beyond data.” The panel will be hybrid, with options to join in-person in Toronto or online. Please find the panel abstract below.
For accepted submissions, we aim to offer an opportunity to submit extended abstracts (closer to the conference dates) for engaged feedback with discussants.
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*[Panel: 213] Counting matters: The ontologies of (ac)counting with and beyond data*
Techniques and technologies of counting have roots in colonial practices that aimed to ‘see’ populations in specific ways. Such acts of “seeing” were never merely descriptive, whether undertaken by colonial states or markets (Scott 1998; MacKenzie 2008; Fourcade and Healy 2017). Rather, they actively shaped how populations were governed and valued. Even as data-driven technologies and their processing capacities have evolved, these histories continue to shape how states, markets, civil society, and communities perceive citizens, workers, consumers, and themselves (Sriraman 2018; Eubanks 2017; Noble 2018). Be it national citizenship registries, Covid-19 dashboards, targeted advertising, or productivity metrics, these contemporary projects are deemed apolitical and neutral tools for impartial investigations and ‘evidence-based’ governance. Crucially, this framing treats counting as descriptive rather than constitutive, obscuring the logics (and politics) through which certain realities are made to count over others.
Against this backdrop, this panel invites critical explorations of contemporary modes of (ac)counting with and beyond data. Here, we understand counting as encompassing the norms and practices of enumeration through which our worlds are made to count and data, as encompassing not only datasets and metrics but also qualitative accounts, records, proxies, and other material–discursive forms. Moving beyond dominant framings of counting as problems of surveillance and control, we problematise counting as world-making (Verran 2001) — what ways of being and becoming are counted and accounted for? How are contemporary data-driven technologies implicated in these processes, co-producing these realities? We invite contributions, including empirical studies, theoretical and methodological reflections that explore themes including: How are data-driven practices and methods deployed to enumerate various spheres of everyday life? What actors, institutions, and relations are caught within and shaped by contemporary modes of counting? What specific counts are produced, normalised, or overlooked by these practices? And how do they (re)make the worlds they enumerate?
----- Please share the call with students and colleagues who may be interested in the themes of this panel.
4S 2026 is happening in Toronto from Oct 7 - 10. The deadline for abstract submission is April 30. More details on how to make a submission can be found here <https://www.4sonline.org/call_for_submissions_toronto.php>.
If you have any questions about the panel, please reach out to any one of us at: Anushree Gupta, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, la20resch11008@iith.ac.in Srravya Chandhiramowuli, University of Edinburgh, srravya.c@ed.ac.uk Janaki Srinivasan, University of Oxford, janaki.srinivasan@sant.ox.ac.uk
Very Best,
Srravya, Anushree, and Janaki