Emblematic localities against existential threats: STSing Balkans, Balkanizing STS
A workshop in Delphi/Athens, Greece 4-5 September 2025
Supported by an EASST (European Association for the Study of Science and Technology) Fund
‘Existential threats’, connected to, most notably, the environmental crisis and the associated climate change, biology, medicine and biotechnology (from pandemics to gene editing), and artificial intelligence, are by now a defining challenge for all social subjects and their institutions. Research to understand where exactly we are, and what we may do to have a chance against such threats, is urgently needed, with relevant STS research being of priority due to its focus on the cause of these threats, namely the connection between society/nature and the shaping of science/technology. Preliminary STS research has suggested that local variation may matter in regards to existential threats, just as it matters, as STS has definitely shown, in regards to science and technology. To advance STS research on local variation regarding existential threats, this workshop that will focus on the paradigmatically challenging localities of a region that is emblematic of the European (and Global) South, the Balkans. The workshop aims at the development of STS in this region (STSing Balkans), as well as in sensitizing STS to a possible need for upsetting its present research agenda so as to prioritize research on understanding/addressing existential threats (Balkanizing STS). The workshop participants will represent all Balkan countries (and Balkan STS societies, programs, institutions/networks), in the direction of setting up a permanent EASST-affiliated regional STS forum.
Workshop Program: TBA
Link for online attendance: TBA
Organizer/Contact: Aristotle Tympas, Professor & Director,Interdepartmental Graduate Program ‘Science, Technology, Society-Science and Technology Studies’, Department of History and Philosophy of Science & Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (tympas[at]phs.uoa[dot]gr);
Scientific Committee: Prof. Aristotle Tympas (existential threats of relevance to AI), Assistant Professor Katerina Vlantoni (existential threats of relevance to biological/biotechnological/biomedical risks), Dr. Giorgos Velegrakis (existential threats of relevance to the environmental crisis)
