The political and economic forces behind the Fourth Industrial Revolution are generating a powerful new wave of technological automation throughout our societies.
A vision for the future is being realised that appears to leave little space for grassroots innovation. And yet across a kaleidoscope of grassroots networks an industrious class of hackers, citizen scientists, makers, activists and repairers are appropriating and subverting the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
In place of automation’s foundations in capital accumulation, managerial control, and labour productivity, these grassroots innovators are cultivating more plural relations with technology, rooted in human creativity, conviviality, and care. In this presentation we’ll discuss some examples and consider whether and how this ‘post-automation’ capacity could help to democratise our technological futures.
Publicly engaged researcher
Adrian Smith is Professorial Research Fellow in Technology and Society at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. Adrian Smith’s research considers the politics and governance of innovation for sustainability, including grassroots innovations. His interdisciplinary work draws upon theories and methodologies from sociology, political science, innovation studies, and science and technology studies. His projects involve empirical studies in both developed and developing country contexts, covering local through national to international scales in a variety of sectors.
In keeping with the SPRU tradition of publicly engaged research, Adrian Smith participates in policy and civil society fora, where he hopes his research serves principles of social justice and environmental responsibility at the heart of sustainable development. With his collaborative work, he has been in the top one per cent most highly cited researchers in Web of Science from 2019 to 2022. In addition to academic publications, Adrian Smith also writes more accessible blog posts from time to time and his research has been used for several exhibitions.
This lecture is open to the public and access is free.
Organizer:
ZRWP / EVIST research group
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