Today and Tomorrow
AI as a Contiguous Actant in Today and Tomorrow’s Society View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Liam Greenacre
Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, AI is described as a contiguous actant in society. AI sits at the intersection of the social, technological, scientific and artistic. This can be seen through how Large Language Models (LLMs) compute information in relation to these, for example ChatGPT can carry help carry out interdisciplinary research, but also due to the way it has agency over these domains through the ability of this information to be utilised. AI can create art, analyse social scientific and natural scientific data and also can be of use in the technical sciences (e.g. coding). This paper places AI in this context, taking Actor-Network Theory’s, expansive definition of the social and suggest that AI is contiguous in the sense that it sits at the border of the different sections of society. A further consideration is the future(s) of AI as an actant: will AI gain more power in social networks? Will it enable a more rounded understanding of society through its inherently interdisciplinary nature? Is AI destined to connect the different elements of society together more rigidly? This paper therefore examines the role of AI in society, but also how it might make further changes.
Negotiation of Gender Identities and Representation of the Subaltern in Arab Feminist Discourse: A Critical Analysis View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Suzan Shan, Sharif Alghazo, Sanaa Benmessaoud
This study investigates how intersectional feminism is linguistically negotiated in the representation of the subaltern in selected contemporary women’s discourses, with a particular focus on scholarly and audiovisual genres. Grounded in feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), the study also draws on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approaches. These frameworks are employed to uncover how intersecting identities such as gender, race, class, and religion are mediated, challenged, and reconstructed through language. The corpus comprises chapters from a scholarly book and a documentary that foreground marginalized female voices from the Arab countries and in diaspora, with attention to identity formulation and gender strategies. The research adopts a qualitative design informed by critical epistemology, enabling a nuanced examination of narrative strategies and representational patterns across modes and genres. By interrogating the thematic dimensions of feminist expression, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of how linguistic and multimodal practices sustain or resist dominant ideologies. The findings are expected to have significant implications for feminist theory, linguistics, and discourse analysis, especially in contexts that center decolonial and Islamic feminist frameworks.
Development of Entrepreneurial and Innovative Capital at the University: Challenges and Advancing Factors View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sandra Valbuena Antolinez, Claudia Peña
The identification of activities and indicators of intellectual capital in relation to entrepreneurship and innovation is considered relevant to contribute to the third university mission, which guarantees the transfer, but also the renewal and updating of knowledge, and the generation of value. From a phased study and from a qualitative approach, based on the methodological sequence of selection of cases reported in the literature, in addition to interviews with managers of the institutions that perform prediction, interpretation of theories and meanings for the construction of guidelines that allow the updating of models of intellectual capital in relation to entrepreneurship and innovation, contextualised in higher education. Interviews with managers highlight the need for links with the productive sector, as well as the design of public policies that reduce barriers and strengthen trust for the development of joint projects with funding. Indicators associated with flexibility for labour reconversion, actions to capitalise on the knowledge of industry, linkage to business activities in learning, tools for training as citizens and future entrepreneurs, as well as measuring university entrepreneurship through technology transfer, are highlighted, university-business collaboration, involvement in entrepreneurship education, the role of the entrepreneurial university, the competence framework for entrepreneurial training and in response to the needs of the productive sector, entrepreneurial culture and behaviour, access to finance, entrepreneurial propensity and experiential learning.
How Belief in Free Will Affects Capital Sentencing and Brain Activity: The Moral–Legal Conflict in Jury Decision-Making View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Vermut Gao
Moral and legal systems serve as parallel frameworks that guide social behavior, yet they often intersect in ways that produce ethical conflict. This study explores the tension between belief in free will, a moral concept linked to personal responsibility, and its influence on support for capital punishment in jury-based sentencing, including responses to neuroimaging data. Previous research suggests that belief in free will promotes prosocial morality but may also increase condemnation of others’ wrongdoing. Our aim is to understand how perceived agency influences moral judgment and the consequences of promoting scientific claims about free will without fully considering public interpretation. Positioned at the intersection of moral psychology, legal decision-making, and cognitive neuroscience, we designed two experimental studies. In Study 1, participants undergo a Velten-style manipulation to induce doubt in free will, then evaluate a mock crime scenario involving the death penalty. Attitudes are assessed using the FAD-Plus (Free Will and Determinism Plus) scale. In Study 2, we introduce manipulated evidence—genetic, neuroimaging, or behavioral—to examine whether biological explanations moderate moral judgment. EEG signals are recorded in both studies to observe neural correlates of decision-making, including potential changes in error-related negativity (ERN). Although data collection is forthcoming, we hypothesize that reduced belief in free will will lower support for capital punishment, especially when paired with biological evidence. Understanding how free will beliefs shape moral and legal judgment is essential, particularly when such beliefs may influence punitive decisions in justice systems and broader social contexts.
