Kean Birch: Do Artifacts have Political Economy?

With the new lecture series “Colloquium on the Reorganization of Knowledge Practices,” we aim to create a space for scholarly exchange, discussion, and networking around the reorganization of knowledge practices in the digital world. We regularly invite experts who address these issues from a range of exciting and diverse perspectives.

The lecture series is aimed at researchers at the institute as well as interested external audiences.

Participation

The lectures take place in the rooms of the Weizenbaum Institute (Flex Room). No registration is required for in-person attendance.

Hybrid participation via Zoom is possible. To receive the link, please send us a short request by email to: kolloquium.rvw[at]weizenbaum-institut.de.

Lecture

Kean Birch (York University, Toronto) on the topic: Do Artifacts have Political Economy? 

Abstract

Harking back to Langdon Winner's now classic essay “Do artifacts have politics?,” the aim of Kean Birch is to ask a very similar question—namely, do artifacts have political economy? Following Winner and with the same objective in mind, he analyzes artifacts that: (1) have been designed in ways that embed particular political economies; or (2) are compatible with particular political economies. He illustrates the former using Winner's own example of Robert Moses and the design of bridges in New York City. For the latter, he illustratea a strong and weak version of the compatibility claim, with the strong version characterized by the adoption of both a particular technology and political economy while the weak version is characterized by the adaptation of the social context to a particular technology and political economy. He uses the example of advertising technology (“adtech”) and generative artificial intelligence respectively to illustrate these two versions. He frames this discussion within an approach he defines as constructivist political economy sitting at the interface of science and technology studies and political economy, which can provide a useful analytical tool to analyze and address the vagaries of contemporary technoscientific capitalism.

Cornelius Heimstädt (University of Hamburg) will then comment on the presentation before we move on to a joint discussion and professional exchange.

Further Dates

• 22.01.2026, 4-6 pm: Rüdiger Graf (ZZF/HU Berlin), “Subjektivität und Verhaltensprognostik von der Prognosetafel zur Algocracy” (DE)
• 05.02.2026, 4-6 pm: Ruthanne Huising (ESSEC Business School Paris), “Expertise in Assemblages” (EN)

An overview of all dates can be downloaded here.