Kapitel

• FrontmatterGetzinger, Günter; Jahrbacher, Michaela; Prunč, Roman Lukas; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-000The Conference Proceedings provide a selection of the thematic fields which were presented at the 23rd STS Conference (Graz, May 5 - 7, 2025)
• Digital city and disaster twins – towards a critical understanding of cyber-physical governanceBraun, Kathrin; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-001Digital city twins are a rapidly spreading phenomenon in digital urbanism. A particular variant are digital city twins for purposes of disaster management. The paper explores the vision of digital city twins for disaster management from a critical, STSinformed perspective. The concept of digital twin has been criticised for implying a realist epistemology and the idea that digital twins could provide an accurate representation of physical reality. This paper highlights an emerging literature that understands digital twins not as realist representations but as self-regulating cyber-physical systems capable of immediate analysis and at least partly automated self-regulating intervention based on real-time bidirectional flows of data and information between the physical and the virtual object. It argues that the vision of self-regulating digital disaster twins requires a different type of critique than the critique of epistemological realism, one that focuses on the question what actually is the system that is supposed to regulate and preserve itself. In this respect, critical analysis can derive key questions and insights from critical studies on disaster and emergency management. Drawing especially on the work of David Keen, the paper argues that the vision of a self-regulating digital disaster twin could further depoliticize disaster management, obscure the relations of power and inequality underlying the causes for and the management of disasters and, in the worst case, lead to an automated biopolitics of disposability. It concludes with the question what kind of political debate is needed to prevent this scenario.
• The Future of Digital Humanism – Towards a Critical Post-Post-HumanismMayer, Katja; Prem, Erich; Birkner, Philip; Hahne, Pia-Zoe; Schmölz, Alexander; Striano, Francesco; Zanzotto, Maria; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-002This position paper distills key insights from the STS Graz 2025 panel ‘The Future of Digital Humanism: Towards a Critical Post-Post-Humanism?’. The session brought together interdisciplinary perspectives to discuss Digital Humanism in light of feminist, ecological, infrastructural, and socio-economic critiques. While the movement draws on humanist ideals like dignity and autonomy, panelists emphasized the need to move beyond Western-centric and techno-solutionist narratives. They proposed a pluralistic and situated approach, framing Digital Humanism as a boundary object - flexible across contexts yet grounded in shared normative orientations. The paper outlines five theses: (1) Digital Humanism should not be equated with classical humanism but understood as a political response to digital dehumanization; (2) critical engagement with humanism helps to resist the powerful narratives of determinism and integrating situated epistemologies and feminist STS helps avoid universalist assumptions and centers marginalized perspectives; (3) more inclusive and accountable digital futures require sustained political engagement and the development of public digital infrastructures; (4) trust in generative AI needs to be reframed as a critical and reflective practice; (5) ecological responsibility can be strengthened through relational ethics that tie human well-being to environmental sustainability. In conclusion, translating theory into practice calls for institutional support and collaborative communities of action across disciplines and sectors. Together, these contributions reimagine Digital Humanism as an evolving, practice-oriented framework - capable of engaging diverse knowledge traditions while promoting democratic, just, and ecologically sound responses to digital transformation.
• Trust in Research Practices & InfrastructuresFlicker, Katharina; Reichmann, Stefan; Blumesberger, Susanne; Czuray, Marie; Mazon, Miguel Rey; Saurugger, Bernd; Rauber, Andreas; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-003The increasing complexity of digital research workflows raises questions about trust in research processes, results, and infrastructures. This study builds on philosophical concepts of trust to examine their relevance to research practices, particularly in relation to data, tools, services, and open-source software. We explore how trust influences sharing and reuse, the perception of quality indicators, and the development of trustworthy infrastructures. Two exploratory approaches were employed: a survey among data scientists in open-source software, and twelve semi-structured interviews with researchers from various disciplines focusing on trust in data quality. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using inductive coding supported by ATLAS.ti. Findings reveal a consistent gap between research ideals and practice. While researchers recognize the importance of verifying the fitness for purpose for reused resources, time constraints often lead them to rely on proxies such as documentation and source reputation. Trust is closely tied to institutional affiliation, peer review, and ethical standards, indicating that reputation and adherence to ethical codes influence perceptions of trustworthiness. The results also highlight the need for mechanisms to assess and communicate trustworthiness especially in dynamic and interdisciplinary contexts. Questions arise about integrating such mechanisms into research infrastructures, including standards for documentation, compliance monitoring, and responses to violations. This work lays the foundation for future research on institutional and technical processes that can foster trust and trustworthiness in the development and use of digital research infrastructures.
• Connecting Feminist STS and Human-Centred Design – a Pathway to Practical Implementation for PractitionersReinhardt, Charlotte; Fricke, Nicola; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-004Since the 1980s, feminist researchers undertook great efforts to integrate gender considerations into Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design processes (Ratzer et al., 2021). Despite the significant scholarly contributions made in this area, there remains a notable scarcity of publications that provide concrete, actionable guidance for practitioners. Much of the existing literature tends to focus on broad frameworks or abstract recommendations regarding research attitudes, rather than offering specific guidelines that can be readily applied in practice (Søndergaard, 2018; Chivukula and Gray, 2020; Dankwa and Draude, 2021). In a recent research, Reinhardt (currently in revision) undertook a comparative analysis of several guidelines that address the integration of gender dimensions into HCI design processes. Through this analysis, we identified four recurring motifs that emerged across the guidelines: 1) a normative design attitude, 2) the body, 3) social constitution and environmental design, and 4) action and interaction. Each of these motifs in turn encompasses several facets that allow for a more differentiated understanding of the implication and ways of application of a truly gender sensitive design. The primary aim of our long term research is to translate these identified motifs into actionable strategies for practitioners. We assert that the effective application of said motifs within a design process necessitates a participatory approach, engaging diverse stakeholders in the design journey. To facilitate this, in this contribution, we propose a series of reflexive questions tailored to each facet of the identified motifs. These questions are strategically aligned with the four activities outlined in the ISO guideline on human-centred design (HCD) ISO 9241-210. As an intermediate step the reflexive questions serve as the basis for the further development of a practitioner’s guideline.
• Longevity Hacking: Ageing as Synthesis in Biomedical TestingPeper, Frederik; Wettmann, Nico; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-005This article examines how ageing becomes visible and malleable through biological self-testing practices within the biohacking and longevity community. Based on digital ethnographic observations of online forums and commercial age testing services, we analyse how users interpret and act upon their biological age data. Our analysis reveals that ageing is no longer viewed as an immutable biological process, but rather as a malleable combination of organic rhythms, socio-technical interventions and mundane knowledge. We refer to this as longevity hacking: an experimental practice of self-optimisation based on quantified ageing markers, aimed at living as long as possible, in the best possible health. This practice reconfigures notions of time, corporeality and agency, offering a new perspective on ageing as an ongoing process of maintenance and enhancement. We argue that biological age testing enables ageing to be reframed as a temporally open, controllable, and partly reversible process. This challenges the conventional view of ageing as an inevitable decline, opening up the possibility of selfdirected health management grounded in molecular knowledge and collective online experimentation. We conclude that longevity hacking represents a new synthesis of ageing: a practice in which biological and socio-technological elements are interwoven into a dynamic, experimental mode of temporal and bodily modulation.
• Co-creating Systemic Knowledge about Community Acceptance: Guidance for integrating Causal Loop Diagrams and Participatory System Mapping in Acceptance ResearchRogall, Marius; Kamlage, Jan-Hendrik; Sasse, David; Krumme, Klaus; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-006The energy transition is a key component in achieving Germany's and Europe's environmental and energy policy goals. While public support for the energy transition is generally high, local conflicts surrounding the related infrastructure projects are slowing down the transformation and causing costs to rise. Acceptance research focuses on the factors and contextual conditions under which such projects are accepted or rejected by affected stakeholders. However, previous research approaches are lacking systemic perspectives that consider the interactions of factors in locally specific constellations. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework that enables us to analyse complex local constellations of acceptance formation. Our approach combines systemic and participatory perspectives on community acceptance of renewable energy technologies (RET) and translates them into a systematic methodological approach in the form of causal loop diagrams (CLD) and participatory system mapping (PSM). The potential of this methodology is illustrated using preliminary results from a case study on electricity grid expansion. These show that CLDs are suitable for capturing, visualising and understanding complex causal mechanisms in the process of acceptance formation. Due to the collaborative research process of researchers and stakeholders within the PSM, the results show an increased relevance for the implementation of communication strategies in the local context. Overall, the combination of systemic and participatory research methods in the form of CLDs and PSM is a suitable approach to expand the methodology and analytical framework of acceptance research. It enables complexity to be captured and thus advances our understanding of acceptance formation.
• Trust and Manipulation in Generative AI: A Digital Humanist PerspectiveStriano, Francesco; Zanzotto, Maria; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-007This paper explores the dynamics of trust and manipulation in generative AI systems, proposing digital humanism as a critical framework to re-evaluate our relationship with such technologies. We conceptualise trust as an evaluative act – a normative judgement about the trustworthiness of a system in a given context – and argue that trust in generative AI is structurally misguided. This is not because such systems lack moral agency, but because the trust placed in them has been uncritically extended from deterministic technologies, whereas generative models are probabilistic and non-linear. These systems should be approached not as ‘truth-tellers’, but as ‘storytellers.’ We further argue that deceptive features – such as their anthropomorphic linguistic style and confident rhetorical tone – exacerbate this misalignment, making users more vulnerable. Digital humanism offers a fruitful perspective for understanding these dynamics, encouraging us to engage with AI not as neutral tools, but as cultural artefacts that shape our values, behaviour, and epistemic practices.
• AI in a Class-Diverse India: Rights, Representation, and RegulationChauhan, Soumya Singh; 10.3217/978-3-99161-062-5-008The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into governance frameworks is accelerating across the Global South, and India stands at the forefront of this transformation. From biometric welfare systems and predictive policing to algorithmic surveillance, AI is increasingly embedded in public service delivery and state infrastructure. However, this technological expansion occurs within a socio-political landscape deeply shaped by caste, religion, and economic class. This paper critically interrogates how AI systems intersect with India’s entrenched hierarchies, revealing the representational, regulatory, and ethical gaps that threaten to reproduce and entrench structural injustice. Drawing from interdisciplinary frameworks in AI ethics, critical data studies, and postcolonial science and technology studies, the paper engages with concepts such as sociotechnical imaginaries, algorithmic discrimination, and data colonialism. It explores how digital systems often erase class-based identities, resulting in opaque decisionmaking, discriminatory surveillance, and the erosion of privacy and agency for marginalized communities. Through case studies of facial recognition, welfare exclusion, and predictive policing, the paper demonstrates how caste, religious, and economic markers are indirectly encoded into algorithmic governance. The analysis reveals that India's techno-solutionist regulatory model prioritizes innovation and efficiency over rights, accountability, and inclusion. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, fails to address algorithmic discrimination, ensure transparency, or mandate oversight. In response, the paper proposes a rights-based, class-conscious AI governance model rooted in India's constitutional commitments to equality, justice, and fraternity. It calls for participatory design, disaggregated data practices, and robust accountability mechanisms to ensure AI serves as a tool of inclusion rather than oppression.