Keynote Speakers

1. Prof. Jannis Kallinikos, Department of Management, London School of Economics, UK
The Habitat of Information: On Institutions and Technological Governance

Abstract

Information produced and disseminated by technological means has nearly penetrated most walks of life (work, entertainment, domestic living) and is predicted to do so at an even faster rate in the future. The implications of these developments for organizations and institutions are currently dimly understood. In most contemporary accounts, information and the technologies by which it is produced and disseminated are still predominantly viewed as resources to be amassed and manipulated to improve efficiency and the performance of organizations. In my keynote speech I will claim that information and the complex networks of technologies and operations into which it is embedded is constructing a new functional habitat. By functional habitat, I mean an integrated and encompassing system of operations, skills and technologies in which the tasks of data editing, information processing and aggregation become the key stuff of most services offered to people and a fundamental mode of perceiving and understanding social relations. These developments transcend the sphere of economy and have profound social and political implications.

About Prof. Kallinikos

Jannis Kallinikos is a Professor in the Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). As the outcome of the cultural and technological developments that mark our time, his research has over the last decade increasingly focused on the study of the social and institutional implications of the diffusion of information and information-based artefacts across the social fabric. He is particularly interested in understanding how the diffusion of technological information in all its breeds (text, voice, image) and digital formats impinges upon social life by (re)constructing the foundations of social institutions and the patterns of interaction characteristic of everyday living. In his research he draws on a variety of social science disciplines including sociology and media, information science and semiotics, organization studies, philosophy and art theory.