The Nikos Poulantzas Institute publishes the Technology Workshop Notebooks, a collection of papers and presentations discussed in the workshops of the same name in March 2023, as part of the thematic focus on Knowledge and Technology. The aim of the workshops was to explore issues at the intersection of technology and politics and to highlight specific proposals and initiatives within selected thematic areas.
Building on a wide range of research and analyses that critically examine the dominant technological paradigm, the workshops focused on proposals that reflect an alternative approach to the development and trajectory of technology. In other words, the discussions sought to explore, from different perspectives, what “better” technologies might mean—i.e., technologies that are more democratic, just, inclusive, and ecological—while highlighting concrete examples. In this sense, the workshops served as an experiment in interdisciplinarity, demonstrating the interdependence of theory and practice.
The first workshop, titled “How Do We Define Democratic Technologies?” (I), addressed a general discussion on the boundaries of the field. Subsequent workshops focused on specific themes, including examples, initiatives, and proposals, with the aim of both giving visibility to existing efforts and supporting the development of strategies to advance technologies in this direction. These discussions revolved around questions such as: “Are there new (digital) rights? What is the role of the state? (big data, algorithms, machine learning/AI)” (II), “How are emancipatory production models shaped in the digital era?” (III), and “How are public digital goods built in education?” (IV).
The Notebooks, edited by Maria Chaidopoulou-Vrychea, the coordinator of the workshops, gather contributions from: Teli Tympa, Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, NKUA; Giorgos Lioudakis, Electrical and Computer Engineer (ICT abovo) and adjunct lecturer at the University of Thessaly, Eleni Rethymiotaki, Associate Professor of Sociology of Law at the Faculty of Law (NKUA) and former Chair of the National Bioethics Committee, Haris Papaevangelou, Political Scientist and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Alexandros Melidis, Political Scientist and Director General of the Hellenic Open Technologies Alliance (EELLAK), Stefanos Vitoratos, Lawyer, Co-founder and Vice President of Homo Digitalis, Giorgos Papanikolaou, Physician and Assistant Professor at Harokopio University, specializing in the commons and open technologies. Giorgos Velegarakis, Geographer, lecturer in the interdisciplinary MSc STS program at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (NKUA) and member of the Commonspace collaborative design team, Vasilis Kostakis, Professor of Technological Governance and Sustainability at Tallinn University of Technology, Researcher at Harvard University, and founding member of the P2P Lab and the worker cooperative Sociality, Antonis Aggelakis, Assistant Professor of Technology Development and Innovation Policy at the Department of Political Science, University of Crete; Georgia Aggelaki, Member of the Europeana Foundation Advisory Board; Errikos Ventura, Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of West Attica; Nikolaos Mitrou, Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NTUA, and Scientific Director of the Kallipos Project, Rania Kalantzi, ICT Educator and former Director General of SDSTE (Sivitanidios Public School of Arts and Professions), and Despina Mitropoulou, Specialist in Open Digital Technologies and former Director General of the Hellenic Open Technologies Alliance (EELLAK).
The Technology Workshop Notebooks offer, to some extent, a snapshot of the four meetings and discussions held in March 2023 and remain highly relevant. They present a collection of texts reflecting diverse perspectives, which is evident in the variety of styles, yet they converge toward a shared direction. We hope that the Notebooks will contribute another building block to a productive and increasingly interdisciplinary dialogue on the future of technology.
