October 4, 2022 – 9:30. Edificio 21 (building 21, DEIB), Aula Alario, quarto piano (fourth floor), Via Golgi 39.

This lecture will discuss the role of quantitative devices (QDs) in expanding sociotechnical imaginaries. It will address how researchers conceive quantitative data, pay attention to the discourses of hope and expectation embedded in the devices and discuss ethical questions of who can quantify the environment and who can only follow what is datafied for them. In fact, colonial powers have used data driven policy support in the pursuit of achieving their imaginaries by offering a more desired global future. This phrasing signals the impossibility of multiple cosmologies since the achievement of “a future” will require others not to occur, or at least modify their trajectory to merge into the dominant imaginaries. This is particularly clear in the context of the climate emergency, with initiatives such as the Stockholm Knowledge Hub for Climate Security and its goal of providing tools to protect the future.