Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Societal Tensions: Contested Transformations In Work, Mental Health, Surveillance, Education and the Environment

This session examines the societal transformations associated with the rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI), focusing on the new tensions, dilemmas, conflicts, trade-offs and opportunities emerging across key domains of contemporary social life, including work, mental health, surveillance, education and the environment. Rather than treating AI as an isolated technological innovation, the session approaches it as part of broader processes of digital transformation and datafication that are reshaping institutions, social relations, inequalities, governance arrangements and everyday life.

The rapid diffusion of generative AI has intensified debates on its promises, risks and societal implications. Moving beyond polarized narratives, the session explores how AI is being adopted, negotiated, contested and regulated across diverse institutional, organizational and social contexts, giving rise to contested transformations with uneven consequences across societies.

The session welcomes diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives engaging with debates on sociotechnics, platformization, digital capitalism, governance and the social implications of AI. Contributions may examine transformations in labour, education, surveillance, health and well-being, environmental governance and related domains, as well as emerging forms of inequality, inclusion, exclusion, participation and institutional change.

Comparative research is particularly encouraged, especially contributions from the Global South that illuminate how AI is appropriated, governed and experienced under diverse socio-political conditions. The session welcomes both theoretical and empirical papers addressing opportunities as well as risks, regulation and governance, resistance and appropriation, and the multiple tensions generated by AI.