Call for Papers for Philosophy and Technology’s special issue on Financial Technologies

Type: Call for Papers

Date: May 1, 2016

Subject Fields: History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Library and Information Science, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology

Call for Papers for Philosophy and Technology’s special issue on Financial Technologies

GUEST EDITORS

Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Vienna)

Quinn DuPont (University of Toronto)

Wessel Reijers (Dublin City University)

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this special issue is to bring together scholarship in philosophy of technology and studies of finance. Over the past decades, the world of finance has been transformed by the introduction of novel technological artefacts, systems, and practices — from ATMs and Internet banking to algorithmic trading, and most recently, the widening use of cryptocurrencies based on the blockchain protocol.

While these transformations of financial systems and practices have been studied in anthropology and science and technology studies (STS), so far they have largely been neglected in philosophy of technology. This is regrettable, since finance is a domain that ought to be of great interest for philosophy of technology. Firstly, inquiries into the workings of financial technologies can provide new insights into the ways technologies mediate inter-human and human-machine relations, as for instance constituting economic exchange, marketplaces and alternative economic practices. Secondly, philosophy of technology can increase our understanding of the meaning and use of money as a fundamentally technological aspect of our social lives. The philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel already elucidated this notion of money as a social technology, calling it the “purest form of the tool” and showing how it can create epistemological and moral distances between people, but more contemporary philosophical work is necessary to address these issues. Third, we can employ theories from philosophy of technology to investigate how recent crossovers of ICTs and finance move beyond conventional economical and legal boundaries. For example, blockchain technology was first created to support the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but now moves beyond its exclusive use for money into areas of “smart” contracts and new modes of governance. Financial technologies greatly impact economic, social and political relations; therefore, they are a fruitful starting point for philosophical reflection.

TOPICS

Our Call for Papers invites work that contributes to philosophy of technology by engaging with questions raised by financial technologies and, preferably, takes into account interdisciplinary work in this area (e.g., anthropology, finance, law, STS). We are specifically interested in papers that explore insights that can be gained from an intersection of philosophy of technology and philosophical works about money and finance, in philosophical reflections on monetary and financial culture and in critical philosophical assessments of emerging financial technologies like crypto currencies. We aim for papers that are both philosophically pertinent and rigorous, and relevant to societal concerns and empirical developments in the area of financial technologies. Therefore, we expect authors to be able to clearly describe the technological systems, artefacts and networks they write about and to show familiarity with the philosophical literature that is used to build the argument.

The list of possible topics includes, but is not limited to:

• How thinkers about money and finance can add to philosophy of technology

• Ontology/epistemology of financial technologies

• Phenomenological and postphenomenological approaches to money and

emerging financial technologies

• Financial technologies and modernity

• Ethics and law of digital financial technologies

• Intersectional approaches to financial technologies

• Financial technologies in the developing world

• Financial technologies as information technologies

• Algorithmic and high-speed trading as a technological practice

• Understanding blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies

• The intersection of ICTs and finance in banking

• Financial technologies in critical theory

• Understanding financial code and software

• Ethics of finance as engineering ethics

• Performativity and semiotics of financial technologies 

TIMETABLE

May 1, 2016: Deadline for paper submissions 

June 15, 2016: Deadline reviews papers 

October 1, 2016: Deadline revised papers 

2017: Publication of the special issue

SUBMISSION DETAILS

To submit a paper for this special issue, authors should go to the journal’s Editorial Manager http://www.editorialmanager.com/phte/

The author (or a corresponding author for each submission in case of co- authored papers) must register into EM.

The author must then select the special article type: "FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES” from the selection provided in the submission process. This is needed in order to assign the submissions to the Guest Editors.

Submissions will then be assessed according to the following procedure:

New Submission => Journal Editorial Office => Guest Editor(s) => Reviewers => Reviewers’ Recommendations => Guest Editor(s)’ Recommendation => Editor-in-Chief’s Final Decision => Author Notification of the Decision.

The process will be reiterated in case of requests for revisions.