Call for abstracts : international conference “Measurement at the Crossroads 2020 - Measuring and Modeling”

Measurement at the Crossroads 2020 is an interdisciplinary conference that explores the philosophy and history of measurement. It aims at consolidating and developing the study of these topics, following the conferences in Bielefeld (2013), Cambridge (2015), and Paris (2018).

The conference intends to promote the reflection on the foundations of measurement across the sciences from philosophical, historical and sociological points of view. In particular, it will aim to gather scholars from different disciplines to study within diverse perspectives the role of modeling in measurement, the use of measurement in modeling, and the way of demarcating the scope of these activities. In fact, measuring and modeling are fundamental activities for understanding both natural and human domains: through measurements we aim at acquiring objective and intersubjective information about the world; through models we are able to understand complex systems and to predict their dynamics. Although crucially different as activities, measuring and modeling are profoundly intertwined. On the one hand, models are essential in order to select what is to be measured, to provide a sound interpretation of measurement results, and to assess their dependability. On the other hand, measurements are indispensable for determining the quality of models and their ability to capture their intended targets. In the last decades, a growing interest on the connections between measuring and modeling has arisen, from a better comprehension of measurement processes and how model simulations can be used to integrate measurement results, to the idea that the distinction between measurements and simulations is to be thought anew.


Topics

The range of topics of interest includes but is not limited to:

1. Models in measurement
•    The role of models in measurement
•    The role of models in justifying measurement results
•    Models, intersubjectivity, objectivity, validation
•    Models of measurement from a historical point of view

2. Models of measurement
•    The general structure of the measurement process
•    The structure of measurement in social and human sciences
•    Transduction and calibration in measurement
•    History of the conception of the structure of measurement

3. Measurement and simulation
•    Connections between measuring and simulating
•    Can simulation substitute measurement?

4. Measurement and Data Science
•    Measurement and data quality
•    Measurement and data analysis
•    Measurement and big data


Important dates
Deadline for submission: 31 January 2020
Notification of acceptance: 15 April 2020


Submission guidelines
We invite submissions for 20 / 30 minute presentations, with 10 additional minutes for discussion.
Please send a 1000-word abstract in PDF prepared for blind review.
All abstracts should be submitted electronically using the EasyChair submission page here.


Invited speakers
  • Anna Alexandrova (King’s College, Cambridge, UK)
  • Denny Borsboom (Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam)
  • To be announced

Programme Committee
•    David Andrich (University of Western Australia, Australia)
•    Francesca Biagioli (Università di Torino, Italy)
•    Mieke Boon (University of Twente, Netherlands)
•    Marcel Boumans (Utrecht University, Netherlands)
•    Olivier Darrigol (CNRS, SPHERE, France)
•    Nadine De Courtenay (University Paris Diderot, France)
•    Alessandro Giordani (Catholic University, Italy)
•    Giora Hon (University of Haifa, Israel)
•    Luca Mari (Cattaneo University, Italy)
•    Andrew Maul (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
•    Roman Morawski (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland)
•    Alfred Nordmann (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany)
•    Wendy Parker (Durham University, UK)
•    Leslie Pendrill (Research Institutes of Sweden, Sweden)
•    Oliver Schlaudt (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
•    Léna Soler (University of Lorraine, France)
•    Eran Tal (McGill University, Canada)
•    Mark Wilson (University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Organizing committee
•    Nadine De Courtenay (University Paris Diderot, France)
•    Alessandro Giordani (Catholic University, Italy)
•    Fabien Grégis (Cattaneo University, Italy)
•    Luca Mari (Cattaneo University, Italy)
•    Oliver Schlaudt (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
•    Eran Tal (McGill University, Canada)