4-5 September 2023
Manchester Alliance Business School
The UK Association for Studies in Innovation, Science and Technology (AsSIST-UK) will be hosting its 2023 in-person conference in September 2023. The aim of our biennial conference is to provide fantastic opportunities and spaces for our members to meet, showcase work and debate current issues facing STIS researchers.
Our theme this year is ‘Disruption’. Disruption(s) in the form of war, public health emergencies, energy supply, financial instability, industrial action, climate change, natural hazards etc. Disruptions have affected our ability to eat, to leave the house, to travel, to socialise, to do research, to pay our bills, to participate in major life events (pass exams, get married, attend a funeral).
We welcome sessions that engage with our theme.
- But what is disruption? How is it conceptualised? And what does it mean to be disruptive? Who or what is disruptive? Is disruption always negative? Can disruption even be productive as well as disorientating?
- How do we cope or thrive with disruption, when it affects our world, our research, our plans? What does this do to the methods that we might use to research? How do we overcome disruption to our old methods and research plans? How we devise new methods, new plans? What do we do when our steady stream of data is disrupted/interrupted for years? Do we ask different questions, use different methods, evaluate differently, designing products and processes in new lights, etc.?
- What about researching disruption itself? What are the challenges? What kinds of questions should we be asking about disruptive events? What does disruption have to do with innovations, system lock-in, stability and instability, and more? How can disruption from 2023 inform disruptions to come?
- In the digital economy and other areas of emerging technology, claims about the disruptive potential of new technologies are used to leverage huge and sustained investments by innovators and entrepreneurs creating new industries or ways of organising existing industry (eg Uber, AirBnB). Disruptive innovation has become a major buzzword in entrepreneurship and innovation groups. Issues arise about assessing these claims – especially since the call to disruption includes a suggestion that existing technological models and ways of working (i.e. existing knowledge) have been superseded.
Call for proposals is now OPEN, the deadline is 19th May 2023 – please submit proposals for whole panels, individual presentations, workshops and interactive activities on the theme of disruption through the form below:
Conference fees for this year’s event are:
Early Bird (register between 1st June and 31st July):
- £215 for anyone who is not a member of AsSIST-UK
- £185 for a member of AsSIST-UK
- £80 for concessionary tickets
Regular (register between 1st August and 31st August):
- £230 for anyone who is not a member of AsSIST-UK
- £200 for a member of AsSIST-UK
- £90 for concessionary tickets
Concessionary rates are being offered to those who confirm that they meet one or more of the following:
- a PhD student
- independent researchers without institutional support or additional external funding
- researchers working for a charity
Registration will be available from 1st June via a link from this page.
For past events see: Past AsSIST-UK Conferences