Conference Digital Commons: Infrastructures, Design, and the Ethics of Autonomy

Digital Commons: Infrastructures, Design, and the Ethics of Autonomy is an international conference exploring how digital infrastructures shape contemporary life, and how communities, researchers, and technologists imagine and build alternatives. Rather than treating digital commons as ready-made technical solutions, the conference approaches them as ongoing, situated practices of autonomy, equitable access, and collective care. Bringing together anthropology, STS, design, informatics, HCI, feminist and Indigenous studies, and civic-tech initiatives, the event foregrounds the social, political, and ethical stakes embedded in networks, platforms, protocols, and data.

Across three days of panels, dialogues, and public events, participants will examine how digital commons emerge, are maintained, and sometimes contested: How do communities repurpose infrastructures for mutual support and collective governance? What design approaches resist extractive logics and cultivate shared stewardship? How do algorithmic systems and AI reshape cultural meaning, memory, and responsibility?

Hosted by the Department of Social Anthropology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and the Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications at the National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”, with parallel activities at AiTHERION, the conference aims to cultivate a shared vocabulary and foster new collaborations among universities, research centers, technologists, cultural collectives, and activist networks committed to creating fairer, more sustainable technological futures.

Find out more about the event here.