SoLiXG:Imaginary
Imaginary
Technological change, such as the proclaimed digital transformation is seemingly always accompanied with stories or imaginaries about the future. How to make sense of these imaginaries and how they are conceptualised theoretically varies broadly. What these conceptualisations have in common, however, is that the imaginaries matter – for the present and the future. Popular proponents of the concept, respectively, their advancement of the “sociotechnical imaginary” are Jasanoff and Kim [1], which they understand as:
“collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of, advances in science and technology” (p. 4)
While the previous focus was on state actors, the extension allows for sensemaking of corporate imaginaries as well as counter-imaginaries [2]. The openness of the broadened understanding, allows us to operationalize it further for our research at SoLiXG. These imaginaries can be constructed by technology development and connected to infrastructure imaginaries, when promoted by corporations building XG infrastructure. They can be put forward and perpetuated by policy stakeholders or shaping policy. However, there can also be emancipatory instances, e.g. building counter-imaginaries to hegemonic imaginaries also tied to power.
- ↑ Jasanoff, S. & Kim S.H. (2015). Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. New York: Zone Books, p. 22.
- ↑ Mager, A. & Katzenbach C. (2021). Future imaginaries in the making and governing of digital technology: Multiple, contested, commodified. New Media & Society, 23(2), 223-236.