CfP - What does a good digital society look like? 10/11 June 2027, Sheffield UK
Submissions are open for the ESRC Digital Good Network's final two-day conference ‘What does a good digital society look like?’ on 10 & 11 June 2027, at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Submit your abstract or proposal by 29 October 2026. WEBSITE: https://digitalgood.net/conference-2027/ Digital technologies should be good for people, societies and the planet, but there is ample evidence that they are often not. Social scientists, humanities scholars and others have provided rich empirical evidence of the harms and inequities that can result from digital tech deployments. For example, dating apps are used to harass and control as well as to enable romantic connections. Social media platforms deny users access to communities of wellbeing support in the process of moderating content to limit self-harm. Generative AI can provide creative assistance and make skills accessible, but it also hallucinates, infringes copyright and results in job losses. And there are environmental costs from data centres’ energy consumption and the global appetite for new devices. The negative consequences of tech deployments make clear the digital society we do not want. The next step is to ask what a good digital society looks like, a question which is attracting growing interest around the globe. What does a good society look like? is a two-day conference which addresses this question. It takes place in Sheffield, UK, on 10-11 June 2027. The conference represents the culmination of the five-year long Digital Good Network, which is collectively concerned with the notion of the ‘digital good’: both what it means, and how we achieve it. *Keynote speaker* We are delighted to announce that *Professor Ruha Benjamin*, transdisciplinary scholar, writer, educator, and cultural worker, and Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, will give the keynote address at the conference. Her work is a major source of inspiration for our own, especially her (2019) invitation to "Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within". She is also Founding Director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab, and author of four books, Imagination: A Manifesto (2024),Viral Justice (2022), Race After Technology (2019), and People’s Science (2013), and editor of Captivating Technology (2019). *Plenary speakers will include* *Jean Burgess,* Distinguished Professor of Digital Media, Queensland University of Technology and Associate Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society *Rachel Coldicutt OBE*, Founder and Executive Director of Careful Industries *Susan Halford*, Professor of Sociology, University of Bristol and Director of the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures *Details * When: Thursday 10 and Friday 11 June 2027 Where: Sheffield Hallam University, UK Participation fee: £150 full fee / £100 for PhD students or those without institutional support. The fee covers conference attendance, refreshments and lunches during the event and an evening reception on the first day. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are not covered. -- Professor Helen Kennedy FBA FAcSS Professor of Digital Society, University of Sheffield, she/her Director of: ESRC Digital Good Network <https://digitalgood.net/> (@digitalgoodnet) + Living With Data <https://livingwithdata.org/> (@Living_WithData) + Public Voices in AI <https://digitalgood.net/dg-research/public-voices-in-ai/> Formerly Director of: Seeing Data <https://seeingdata.org/> Co-editor of: Data Visualization in Society <https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/22273/9789048543137.pdf> *Recent publications:* Kennedy, H., Aiello, G., Annabell, T. & Anderson, C.W. (2025) Generic visuals in the news as public images: Activating emotions, experiences and identities. *European Journal of Cultural Studies*. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494241310675 Kennedy, H., Ditchfield, H., Oman, S., Bates, J., Perea, I. M., Fratczak, M., & Taylor, M. (2024). How people connect fairness and equity when they talk about data uses. *Big Data & Society*, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241303162 Ditchfield, H., Oman, S., Kennedy, H., Frątczak, M., Bates, J., Taylor, M., & Medina-Perea, I. (2024). 'What ifs: The role of imagining in people’s reflections on data uses', *Convergence*. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565241300898 The Digital Good Network (2024) 'What do we mean when we talk about a good digital society?' in British Academy (ed) *What are the Possibilities of a Good Digital Society? * http://doi.org/10.5871/digital-society/9780856726934.001 <http://doi.org/10.5871/digital-society/9780856726934.001>
Dear sender, thank you for your email. I am currently out of office and unable to respond promptly. I will reply as soon as possible upon my return. Best, Vincenzo Luise, PhD Assistant Professor | Department of Social Sciences, University of Naples Federico II docenti.unina.it/vincenzo.luise UNINA Scientific Coordinator | MSCA Seizmic Doctoral Network seizmic.eu/seizmic-msca On 27 Jul 2026, at 21:04, Helen Kennedy via Air-L <air-l@lists.aoir.org> wrote:
Submissions are open for the ESRC Digital Good Network's final two-day conference ‘What does a good digital society look like?’ on 10 & 11 June 2027, at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Submit your abstract or proposal by 29 October 2026.
WEBSITE: https://digitalgood.net/conference-2027/
Digital technologies should be good for people, societies and the planet, but there is ample evidence that they are often not. Social scientists, humanities scholars and others have provided rich empirical evidence of the harms and inequities that can result from digital tech deployments. For example, dating apps are used to harass and control as well as to enable romantic connections. Social media platforms deny users access to communities of wellbeing support in the process of moderating content to limit self-harm. Generative AI can provide creative assistance and make skills accessible, but it also hallucinates, infringes copyright and results in job losses. And there are environmental costs from data centres’ energy consumption and the global appetite for new devices.
The negative consequences of tech deployments make clear the digital society we do not want. The next step is to ask what a good digital society looks like, a question which is attracting growing interest around the globe. What does a good society look like? is a two-day conference which addresses this question. It takes place in Sheffield, UK, on 10-11 June 2027. The conference represents the culmination of the five-year long Digital Good Network, which is collectively concerned with the notion of the ‘digital good’: both what it means, and how we achieve it.
Keynote speaker We are delighted to announce that Professor Ruha Benjamin, transdisciplinary scholar, writer, educator, and cultural worker, and Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, will give the keynote address at the conference. Her work is a major source of inspiration for our own, especially her (2019) invitation to "Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within". She is also Founding Director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab, and author of four books, Imagination: A Manifesto (2024),Viral Justice (2022), Race After Technology (2019), and People’s Science (2013), and editor of Captivating Technology (2019).
Plenary speakers will include Jean Burgess, Distinguished Professor of Digital Media, Queensland University of Technology and Associate Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society Rachel Coldicutt OBE, Founder and Executive Director of Careful Industries Susan Halford, Professor of Sociology, University of Bristol and Director of the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
Details When: Thursday 10 and Friday 11 June 2027 Where: Sheffield Hallam University, UK Participation fee: £150 full fee / £100 for PhD students or those without institutional support. The fee covers conference attendance, refreshments and lunches during the event and an evening reception on the first day. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are not covered.
-- Professor Helen Kennedy FBA FAcSS Professor of Digital Society, University of Sheffield, she/her Director of: ESRC Digital Good Network (@digitalgoodnet) + Living With Data (@Living_WithData) + Public Voices in AI Formerly Director of: Seeing Data Co-editor of: Data Visualization in Society Recent publications: Kennedy, H., Aiello, G., Annabell, T. & Anderson, C.W. (2025) Generic visuals in the news as public images: Activating emotions, experiences and identities. European Journal of Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494241310675 > Kennedy, H., Ditchfield, H., Oman, S., Bates, J., Perea, I. M., Fratczak, M., & Taylor, M. (2024). How people connect fairness and equity when they talk about data uses. Big Data & Society, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517241303162 > Ditchfield, H., Oman, S., Kennedy, H., Frątczak, M., Bates, J., Taylor, M., & Medina-Perea, I. (2024). 'What ifs: The role of imagining in people’s reflections on data uses', Convergence. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565241300898 > The Digital Good Network (2024) 'What do we mean when we talk about a good digital society?' in British Academy (ed) What are the Possibilities of a Good Digital Society? http://doi.org/10.5871/digital-society/9780856726934.001 > _______________________________________________ The To unsubscribe send an email to air-l-leave@lists.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (2)
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Helen Kennedy -
Vincenzo Luise