Dreamscapes of Modernity
Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power
9780226276526
9780226276663
Dreamscapes of Modernity
Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power
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.
360 pages | 7 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2015
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
History: History of Technology
Political Science: Comparative Politics
Reviews
Table of Contents
1. Future Imperfect: Science, Technology, and the Imaginations of Modernity
Sheila Jasanoff
2. Cecil Rhodes and the Making of a Sociotechnical Imaginary for South Africa
William K. Storey
3. Our Monsters, Ourselves: Reimagining the Problem of Knowledge in Cold War America
Michael A. Dennis
4. Imagining a Modern Rwanda: Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Information Technology, and the Postgenocide State
Warigia Bowman
5. Keeping Technologies Out: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Formation of Austria’s Technopolitical Identity
Ulrike Felt
6. Remembering the Future: Science, Law and the Legacy of Asilomar
J. Benjamin Hurlbut
7. Social Movements and Contested Sociotechnical Imaginaries in South Korea
Sang-Hyun Kim
8. Building from the Outside In: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Civil Society in New Order Indonesia
Suzanne Moon
9. Guerilla Engineers: The Internet and the Politics of Freedom in Indonesia
Joshua Barker
10. Consuming Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Rice in China
Nancy N. Chen
11. Imaginaries of Science and Society: Framing Nanotechnology Governance in Germany and the United States
Regula Valérie Burri
12. Corporate Imaginaries of Biotechnology and Global Governance: Syngenta, Golden Rice, and Corporate Social Responsibility
Elta Smith
13. Globalizing Security: Science and the Transformation of Contemporary Political Imagination
Clark A. Miller
14. Global Health Security and the Pathogenic Imaginary
Andrew Lakoff
15. Imagined and Invented Worlds
Sheila Jasanoff
Acknowledgments
Contributor Biographies
Sheila Jasanoff
2. Cecil Rhodes and the Making of a Sociotechnical Imaginary for South Africa
William K. Storey
3. Our Monsters, Ourselves: Reimagining the Problem of Knowledge in Cold War America
Michael A. Dennis
4. Imagining a Modern Rwanda: Sociotechnical Imaginaries, Information Technology, and the Postgenocide State
Warigia Bowman
5. Keeping Technologies Out: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Formation of Austria’s Technopolitical Identity
Ulrike Felt
6. Remembering the Future: Science, Law and the Legacy of Asilomar
J. Benjamin Hurlbut
7. Social Movements and Contested Sociotechnical Imaginaries in South Korea
Sang-Hyun Kim
8. Building from the Outside In: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Civil Society in New Order Indonesia
Suzanne Moon
9. Guerilla Engineers: The Internet and the Politics of Freedom in Indonesia
Joshua Barker
10. Consuming Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Rice in China
Nancy N. Chen
11. Imaginaries of Science and Society: Framing Nanotechnology Governance in Germany and the United States
Regula Valérie Burri
12. Corporate Imaginaries of Biotechnology and Global Governance: Syngenta, Golden Rice, and Corporate Social Responsibility
Elta Smith
13. Globalizing Security: Science and the Transformation of Contemporary Political Imagination
Clark A. Miller
14. Global Health Security and the Pathogenic Imaginary
Andrew Lakoff
15. Imagined and Invented Worlds
Sheila Jasanoff
Acknowledgments
Contributor Biographies
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