Centre for Critical Technology Studies (CCTS) carries out research on the complexity of challenges related to technological advancement (especially digital technologies) and its impact on societies. It diagnoses technological transformation in many research projects that, far from technological optimism, Promethean visions or uninformed technology development, outlines the conditions and areas wherein the technological transformation in question could entail beneficial social change.

What We Do

Digital transformation, just like ecological transformation, is civilization-driven. As such, it demands civilizational decisions and choices. We create theoretical frameworks capable of encompassing numerous aspects of that transformation towards a better understanding of the transformation’s nature and consequences. We research imageries, discourses and mythologies of the digital world. We investigate the changing relationships between people and machines, between social systems and technical systems, and between biosphere and technosphere. We probe and rehearse various critical approaches to technology, technological phenomena and technology construction.

How We Do It

CCTS and its research activities are rooted in the humanities and social studies approached in close relation to sciences and engineering studies (STEM) and life science. We believe that the benevolent social scenarios of the technological future can only emerge from publicly engaged interscientific deliberations – academic and non-academic alike. The research traditions we follow include: continental philosophy, philosophy of technology, social philosophy, critical theory, political economics, media studies, emotion semiotics, digital humanities, critical robotics.