CFP: The People’s Political Economy of Computing

A one day conference presented by the Political Economy and Algorithms Collective, as part of our series on Technology and Democracy: Perspectives from Political Economy

The Political Economy and Algorithms Collective is hosting a one-day conference on April 26* in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This conference will bring together researchers and organizers that are investigating the political economy of algorithms and computing, with the goals of identifying how we might bridge technology-related movements and struggles, and what the role of theory and the intellectual in a liberatory movement can/should be.

*Please be aware that the conference was rescheduled from May 2 to April 26.

We are soliciting submissions (in the form of position papers) with the intent to invite at least twelve presenters. Attendees may present a lightning talk or participate in a panel in conversation with others. All accepted position papers will be published on our website: computing.capital.

Information for Attendees

Registration is now open for attendees!

Please complete this registration form

Conference Program

Time	LCSIB 1125 (big room)	LCSIB 1240	LCSIB 1290
9–10 AM	☕ Registration opens; breakfast & coffee
10–10:15 AM	📣 Keynote from local organizers
10:15–11 AM	🤝 Mixer
11 AM–12:30 PM	S1: Contemporary Capitalism Theory	S2: Infrastructures and Institutions	Hangout / Activities Table 1
12:30–1:30 PM	🍽️ Lunch
2–3:30 PM	S3: Technological Regimes	S4: Tech and Labor	Hangout / Activities Table 2
3:30–4:30 PM	✨ Fun activity	☕ Coffee break	Hangout / Activities Table 3
4:30–6 PM	S5: Resistance and Organizing	—	—
6 PM onwards	🍽️ Dinner (with additional programming)

Session Details

Keynote from local organizers

Details TBA

S1: Contemporary Capitalism Theory

This session examines capitalism’s evolving forms in the contemporary age, interrogating (dis)continuities in our understanding of capitalism and its relation to modern technology, science, and politics. Central to this is the question of whether we are witnessing the same old order under new guises, or something genuinely new.

Works in discussion:

· Capitalism or Technofeudalism? Notes on the debate, a third world perspective
· Egotistical Calculation: A Historical Materialist Critique of Statistical Epistemology
· Silicon Valley and the Security State, 1999–2005

S2: Infrastructures and Institutions

This session explores how technical and bureucratic infrastructures shape (and are shaped by) institutional power, from rural economies to university governance to postcolonial urban development.

Works in discussion:

· Crisis and Rural Innovation
· On the Technical Infrastructure for Administrative Abolition: Exploring the Systemic Design Process for Democratic Self-Management of Universities
· Spectres of Postcolonial Socialist Publics in a Tech City: The Case of Deindustrialising Bangalore
· Teaching the Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence: Reports from Public School Classrooms

S3: Technological Regimes

This session interrogates the political and ideological dimensions of emerging technological regimes, asking who benefits from their rapid expansion and on whose terms the future of society is being built.

Works in discussion:

· Agentic AI: User Empowerment or Infrastructures of Power?
· Ultraprocessed Information and Generative Deserts: Parallels Between the History of Ultraprocessed Foods and Generative AI
· What's the Deal with AI Safety?
· Working Towards Understanding the Political Ideology of Technological Projects

S4: Tech and Labor

This session investigates the material conditions of technology work and the political economies that structure them, from platform labor in the Global South to the class dynamics of the engineering profession.

Works in discussion:

· Data Work in Kenya and the Regime of Entrapment
· Institutional Entrepreneurship as a Response to Regulatory Abandonment: The Case of Web Accessibility
· The Class Interests and Moral Motivations of the Shareholding Engineer
· The PATCO Strike and the Development of Centralized Air Flow Technology

S5: Resistance and Organizing

This session brings together work on how peoples, workers, and activists organize resistance with or in spite of technology, from cloud chokepoints to abolitionist practice.

Works in discussion:

· Digital Infrastructural Resistance in Gaza
· Chokepoints in the Cloud: Generative Potential of Breakdown in Cloud Infrastructures
· Destruction as Design
· Digital Defense as Abolitionist Practice

Information for Contributors

Format

2 page limit (without citations): position paper, extended abstract, etc. We prefer that authors use the ACM small template.

Submission process

Upload your submission here. Questions can be directed to political-economy-and-algorithms-requests at umich.edu.

Deadline

UPDATE! Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis until Feb 15, 11:59PM.

Attending and Logistics

Date: Sunday, April 26, 2026

Location: Leinweber Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Cost: No attendance or registration fees

Travel: Nearest airport is DTW (25 miles, accessible by bus), nearest train station is Ann Arbor Amtrak (2 miles)

Financial Support: Funds are available for round-trip travel to Ann Arbor from the US and Canada for accepted presenters. Organizers will be in contact with presenters to arrange travel and lodging plans.