Valedictory lecture Prof. Dr. Sally Wyatt

"Technology - life
Contingency - irony
Hostility – hope"

In my farewell lecture, I reflect on my academic life and work at Maastricht University and elsewhere. The substance of the lecture is guided by the first words of each line. The final ‘thank you’ section, deals with life and hope. Irony is a constant, helping me navigate the contradictions inherent in academia.

Capturing 50 years of work in a lecture of less than 50 minutes is challenging. I focus on contributions I have made to understanding the relationship between technical and social change. One is about the varieties of technological determinism, a view we have to take seriously even though we know it is inadequate. Another is about voluntary and involuntary non-use of digital technologies. Attention to non-use brings questions of inequality and resistance to the fore. Finally, I introduce current work about ‘hostility by design’ and ‘technological innocence’, to capture those technologies designed to harm people, the environment, and democratic ideals. 

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