Performative Futures: Fighting Reification Inertias through Open Anticipations

Abstract

Science and technology practices are crucially shaped by representations of the future. Expectations, socio-technical imaginaries and techno-visions are constitutive elements in the de facto epistemic-political governance of research and innovation. Some science and technology scholars (e.g., van Lente, 2006; Jasanoff and Kim, 2015; Konrad and Palavicino, 2017; Lösch, 2017) as well as certain research policy frameworks (e.g., technology assessment, anticipatory governance, RRI) have emphasized this performative character of futures by approaching it as an object of responsibility. This intellectual endeavor has been especially fruitful in relation to the visualization and critique of existing reification inertias. That is to say, the frames, regulations, commitments, feelings and so on, orienting and constraining (i.e., reifying, or closing-down) the processes, outcomes and ends of research and innovation practices. This panel aims to explore the theoretical and practical possibilities of developing interventive, anticipatory resources that are capable of instrumentalizing the future in more open, inclusive and reflexive ways. Some potential questions include: To what extent are anticipatory narratives and practices within research and innovation policy systems open, inclusive and reflexive? What constraining/enabling roles do socio-technical expectations, imaginaries and techno-visions of the future play in research and innovation practices? What potentials and limits do anticipatory methods (e.g., scenario-building, science-fiction prototyping, technology roadmapping, etc.) display with regard to reflexivity and de-reifying dynamics? How is/ should the epistemic-political quality of open anticipatory practices be enacted and/or assessed? What role and relevance does anticipatory governance display in relation to more recent policy frameworks such as RRI and “Open Science”?

Chairs

• Sergio Urueña, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

• Hannot Rodríguez, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

Individual Presentations

• Exploring the Interaction of Technological Futures, Science Fiction and Utopian Thinking - Andreas Metzner-Szigeth, Free University of Bolzano

• Futures Scenarios As Tools Of Participatory Science Communication In Ecosystem Management And Governance - Ludwig Weh, Freie Universität Berlin

• Modelling as anticipation: how computational models stabilize ideas of risk governance - Daniela Fuchs, Institute of Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ITA-OeAW); Anja Bauer, University of Klagenfurt; Titus Udrea, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Inst. of Technology Assessment (ITA); Leo Capari, Institute of Technology Assessment, Austrian Academy of Sciences

• Opening Up Smart City Visions to Citizen Perspectives Through Art & Play - Aafke Fraaije, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Frank Kupper, Athena Institute, VU University, Amsterdam

• Opening Up Sociotechnical Entrenchments through Anticipations: Relational Quality and the Heuristics of Foresight - Sergio Urueña, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU; Hannot Rodríguez, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU; Andoni Ibarra, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

Session Organizers

• Sergio Urueña, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

• Hannot Rodríguez, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU

• Andoni Ibarra, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU