Kelly Bronson
University of Ottawa
is the guest at a seminar organized as part of her stay at the CSI
on May 2, 2024 from 2:30 to 4 pm
at Mines Paris – PSL, 60 bd Saint Michel, 75006 Paris
Immaculate conception of data:
agribusiness, activists and their shared politics of the future
Outline: I bring a sociological and STS lens to analysis of large agricultural firms who used to supply farmers tractors, chemicals and seeds but who now trade in big data and AI.
In this talk, I will draw from an ethnographic book project to develop a closely observed account of scientists and farmers working across a variety of domains – from private labs to farm fields to activist technology-building workshops. I will use stories to describe what is being done with agricultural big data and AI by those hoping to innovate food production. In addition to thickly describing data practices, I will detail the magical qualities that people are investing in AI systems, ultimately exploring what happens to environmental and food justice when emergent technologies get caught up in pre-existing arrangements of power and historic habits of thought and speech.
Kelly Bronson is the Canada Research Chair in Science and Society, a Faculty member at the Centre for Law, Technology, and Society, and an Associate Professor within the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa. She studies science-society tensions that erupt around controversial technologies (GMOs, fracking, big data & AI) and their governance.
Information and registration
Date: Thursday May 2, 2024, from 2:30 pm to 4 pm
Venue: Mines Paris-PSL, 60 boulevard Saint Michel, 75006 Paris. Room L316
The session will also be streamed by videoconference. The link will be sent upon registration just before the seminar.
The seminar is open to all. Please register here to participate in the seminar.
Contact: Liliana Doganova
Photo credit: Tangi Bertin, Tracteur, CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed