DIGITAL DECOLONISATION AND DIGITAL JUSTICE

The African Centre for Epistemology of Philosophy of Science (ACEPS) at the University of Johannesburg invites abstract submissions for:

Digital Decolonisation and Digital justice

UJ on Empire @ 13 and 14 August 2025

Digital technologies are deeply embedded in how we produce and share knowledge. At the same time, our digital infrastructure for sharing knowledge is largely designed and maintained by tech companies in the Global North that pursue profit by exploiting citizens and communities in the Global South.  For example, social media companies profit from hate speech that inflames ethnic cleansing. Tech companies exploit the labour of workers from the Global South to train algorithms. AI has significant environmental costs, which are disproportionately borne by the Global South. And citizens of the Global South are often cut off from the benefits of digital technologies. Technologies are often designed without their interests, languages, cultures, or material circumstances in mind.

Digital Decolonisation and Digital Justice is a two-day, interdisciplinary conference investigating decolonisation of the digital technologies that shape contemporary knowledge and exploring what reparations for digital harms might involve.  The hybrid conference will be held online and in person at the ACEPS in 2025.

This conference aims to investigate the following questions, among others:

·       How do social media platforms and big tech corporations perpetuate digital colonisation?

·       What is the nature and scope of the harms caused by big tech?

·       When and why must tech companies be held accountable for harms, and what are the right mechanisms for doing so?

This conference aims to bring together scholars from philosophy, science and technology studies (STS), media studies, information science, communications, data science, computer science, political science, and other fields working on decolonisation and technology. Taking decolonisation as more than a mere metaphor, ACEPS aims to encourage submissions from scholars from Africa and the broader Global South with the aim of building networks of collaboration.

Topics that will be included in the call for papers for researchers to consider may include, but are not limited to:

·           Epistemic decolonisation and technology

·           Decolonising the internet

·           Alternative, postcolonial technologies

·           Indigenous knowledge and AI

·           Democracy and AI

·           Climate justice and AI

·           Digital harms and technological epistemic injustice

·           Justice for digital harms

·           Resistance and refusal theory

Abstract length: 500 words

Submission deadline: 1 June 2025

Notification of acceptance: 15 June 2025

Email abstracts & queries:[email protected]

Organisers: Paige Benton, Karen Frost-Arnold, Veli Mitova.

Funding: This conference is part of the grant project Safeguarding Justice & Democracy in the Age of AI. Funding is provided by the University of Johannesburg Global Excellence and Stature.

Accepted speakers will be responsible for their own visa, travel, and accommodation. However, funding is available to cover accommodation for students from developing countries. If you fall into this category, please indicate this in the body of your email when submitting.