Performing Socio-Technical Imaginaries - I

Abstract

This panel delves into the performative dimensions of socio-technical imaginaries (STI). These include, but are not limited to, the circulation of STIs in/across popular (consumer) culture, public policy, commercial organizations, etc.; the materialization of STIs into systems and artefacts; as well as the tricky translation of STIs into everyday practices and performative scripts. We are interested both in specific performances of imaginaries, and in the effects these imaginaries exert in highly-affected areas of life, such as transport and communication, health and biomedicine, homes and workplaces. The panel questions how different actors – including industry, trade organizations, governments, end users, and citizens – partake in the production, circulation, negotiation, translation of and resistance towards STIs related to eagerly awaited, while at the same time contentious, technologies (e.g., AI, robots and drones, self-trackinging, genetic bioengineering, 3D printing, smart home technology).

Some topics that may be addressed include:

Socio-technical imagineering (mapping the actors, strategies and tactics)
Circulation of STIs through public media and commercial communications
Resistance to, and destabilization of hegemonic imaginaries
Translation and diffusion of STIs across borders and boundaries
Performativity of design and materialization of STIs
Socio-technical Imagineering and industry/market development
Performativity of dystopic imaginaries and stigma
Methodological approaches to exploring the performativity of STIs

Chair

• Domen Bajde, University of Southern Denmark

Individual Presentations

• Performing Securitization: The Socio-Technical Imaginary of AI-Based Security - Jens Hälterlein, Long Distance University Hagen

• Socio-Technical Imagineering and the Future(s) of Civilian Drones - Domen Bajde, University of Southern Denmark; Alev Pinar Kuruoglu, University of Southern Denmark; Mikkel Nøjgaard, University of Southern Denmark; Jannek Sommer, University of Southern Denmark

• Promising Power? Future-Oriented Representations of Nuclear Fusion Energy Research - Derek Taylor Parrott, Cornell University STS

• Making AR Usable through the Socio-Technical Imagineering Circulating in Facebook Pages and Vlogs - Sandra Patricia Gonzalez-Santos, Universidad Anahuac

Session Organizers

• Domen Bajde, University of Southern Denmark

• Alev Pinar Kuruoglu, University of Southern Denmark

• Mikkel Nøjgaard, University of Southern Denmark

• Jannek Sommer, University of Southern Denmark