SAIS @ EASSTPublished on 04.09.2026

EASST 2026 in Krakow

The upcoming EASST (European Association for the study of Science and Technology) conference in Krakow features three SAIS (past and present) member contributions.

Yulia Kukles and Anna Jobin present their paper “Learning to prompt as relational everyday practice among office workers.” Through in-depth interviews, they reveal how office workers learn to prompt LLMs not as a discrete skill, but as a relational, everyday practice. Despite organizational investments in AI adoption (internal platforms, guidelines, and training) many workers remain unaware of these resources. Instead, they rely on peer exchanges, experimentation, and direct interaction with LLMs to refine their prompting skills.

Julie Marques hosts a panel that centers on justice-oriented technological futures. It challenges the linear, extractivist narratives of Big Tech by advocating for inclusive, minoritised perspectives. The panel explores how concepts like environmental, epistemic, and design justice can resist hegemonic modes of technology-making. By focusing on forgotten histories, counter-design, and socio-technical alliances, it invites contributors to imagine and enact fairer, situated futures—treating justice not as a distant goal, but as a guiding principle.

Jascha Bareis' role of a commentator on the panel “alternative futures” diagnoses a crisis of imagination. It unpacks what constitutes an “alternative,” questioning nostalgic longings, undemocratic visions, and participatory legitimacy. By examining the forms of “alternativity” STS mobilizes, the panel seeks to clarify the purposes, conditions, and effects of envisioning alternatives—ultimately sharpening STS’s analytical and engagement tools.