Beyond the Algorithm: Feminist Analysis of Labor, Environmental Costs, and the Politics of AI

Artificial intelligence and digital systems are becoming central to how societies respond to crises of climate change, economic insecurity, displacement, public health, conflict, and democratic strain. They shape how work is organized, how care is delivered, how people access public services, and how institutions make decisions. They also depend on material infrastructures—data centers, energy and water systems, mineral extraction, supply chains, and dispersed forms of human labor—that connect communities globally.

This session invites feminist scholars to examine how AI is reshaping relations of labor, care, knowledge, authority, extraction, and governance in turbulent times. We welcome contributions that explore the political and institutional choices embedded in technological change, including who designs, owns, regulates, maintains, and bears the costs of digital systems.

Papers may consider the administrative and service work generated by digital platforms; changes in paid, unpaid, and care labor; algorithmic management; AI in health care, education, welfare, migration, banking, and public services; surveillance and data extraction; and environmental consequences of digital expansion. We are especially interested in research on energy and water demands, land use, e-waste, extractive supply chains, and the uneven ecological burdens associated with data centers and infrastructures.

The session welcomes work situating AI within wider inequalities shaped by gender, race, class, disability, age, sexuality, migration status, indigeneity, geography, and colonial histories. We invite theoretical, empirical, methodological, and praxis-oriented contributions from scholars working across regions and disciplines, including research on feminist organizing, labor politics, accountability, environmental justice, disability justice, and collective approaches to technological governance.