Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power

by Sheila Jasanoff (Editor), Sang-Hyun Kim (Editor)

Dreamscapes of Modernity offers the first book-length treatment of sociotechnical imaginaries, a concept originated by Sheila Jasanoff and developed in close collaboration with Sang-Hyun Kim to describe how visions of scientific and technological progress carry with them implicit ideas about public purposes, collective futures, and the common good. The book presents a mix of case studies—including nuclear power in Austria, Chinese rice biotechnology, Korean stem cell research, the Indonesian Internet, US bioethics, global health, and more—to illustrate how the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries can lead to more sophisticated understandings of the national and transnational politics of science and technology. A theoretical introduction sets the stage for the contributors’ wide-ranging analyses, and a conclusion gathers and synthesizes their collective findings. The book marks a major theoretical advance for a concept that has been rapidly taken up across the social sciences and promises to become central to scholarship in science and technology studies.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History Of Science, Society, Politics, Science

360 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2015

About the author

Sheila Jasanoff is an Indian American academic and significant contributor to the field of Science and Technology Studies. She is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. A pioneer in her field, she has authored more than 130 articles and chapters and is author or editor of more than 15 books, including The Fifth Branch, Science at the Bar, Designs on Nature, The Ethics of Invention, and Can Science Make Sense of Life? Her work explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies. She founded and directs the STS Program at Harvard; previously, she was founding chair of the STS Department at Cornell. She holds AB, JD, and PhD degrees from Harvard, and honorary doctorates from the Universities of Twente and Liège.

Reviews

[Guy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's up with all you nasty-ass haters spitting on this book? Two stars? GTFO. Some ginger clown gonna be like: bup bup bup gabba gabba. No. Jasanoff is a superstar and the concept of the sociotechnical imaginary, and imaginaries in general, is fuckin' epic way to think about larger societal narrative.

[Sejal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting conceptualisation and framework for understanding how technology interacts with society to create visions of future.

[Aivaras Žukauskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Some superinteresting ideas in the first part of the book, but it gets weaker as it goes along. By the time you get to rice in China, questions about the whole theoretical direction and scope of the theory become more and more abundant - not because it's provocative, but because it just loses focus. However, the first half of the articles, as well as bookends provided by Jasanoff herself are very useful for those studying political imagination, imaginal politics in the age of modern technology.

[Maryam AlSultan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and the stories it was telling. I found that it made it easier to understand some arguments in her earlier books, even if the concept of Sociotechnical imaginaries is new [at time of writing]. The overarching argument, that discourse is not the only thing heavily affecting state formation, governance, etc and that science and technology co-produce these, is an argument that I find convincing.