[csaa-forum] Open Panel Call for contributions: "Digital Technologies in Transformations of Emotional Service Work" at the EASST/4S Conference, July 2024, Amsterdam

[Justine Humphry]

Dear Colleagues,



We are inviting submissions to our open panel “*Digital Technologies in
Transformations of Emotional Service Work*” at the 4S/EASST Conference,
which will take place in Amsterdam, 16-19 July 2024.



Submission Deadline: February 12, 2024.



Short Abstract:

*Service work is increasingly mediated by digital technologies. How are
human and non-human work translated, augmented and automated? How are
service assemblages reconfigured, and consumption experiences changed? What
are the implications for labour, communication, affect and social
interaction?*



Long Abstract:

Digital technologies are increasingly mediating service work: QR codes,
tablets, restaurant delivery robots, gig economy apps, chatbots and
artificial intelligence. These technologies have implications for labour,
communication, affect, and social interactions. They involve translations
between human and non-human work, reconfigurations of service assemblages
and changes in experiences of consumption. Service work was famously
conceptualised by Hochschild (1983) as the commercialisation of feeling by
which employers exploit the emotional labour of employees, typically women,
in front-facing roles that involve customer interaction. Communication is
key to the performance of emotional service work. Service involves
exchanging social cues and making complex and relational decisions in the
back and forth flow of social interaction. As service is remodelled through
automation and/or augmentation, human workers are repositioned in relation
to service roles that they previously performed. At the same time, they
must negotiate the emotional and communicative capacities and constraints
of other service-performing actors. In some contexts, service work is
automated. For example, when social robots are introduced, questions come
up as to who and how the emotional and communicative work of service is
performed. To what extent is this work carried out or shared by robots in
service roles? In other contexts, emotional service work is augmented, such
as in gig economy apps programmed to manage the user experiences of workers
and consumers. What are the affective features and/or expressions of
digital technologies in service work? We are inviting papers that report on
and theorise the digital reconfigurations of service technologies, models,
roles and practices. This panel will bring STS into conversation with
human-machine communication and affect studies. We invite engagement that
conceptualises these transformations from multiple approaches in terms of
but not limited to assemblages, translations, power relations,
stabilisations and reconfigurations of service models.



Convenors

Dr Justine Humphry    justine.humphry at sydney.edu.au, University of Sydney

Dr Chris Chesher        chris.chesher at sydney.edu.au, University of Sydney

Dr Arisa Ema              aema at g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp, University of Tokyo



You can submit abstracts of up to 250 words here:

https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst-4s2024/p/14207



More details about the conference: https://www.easst4s2024.net/
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/yPpECE8wmrtlzMlDWcwGaA9?domain=easst4s2024.net/>



If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.



Best wishes,

Justine



*DR JUSTINE HUMPHRY* | Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures
Digital Cultures Program, Department of Media and Communications, Faculty
of Arts and Social Sciences

*THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY*
Rm N226, Woolley Building | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006
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