Research Overview:

• This piece of research examined the concept of Sociotechnical Imaginaries (SIs) - which are collectively held, institutionally stabilised, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures - in the context of innovative sectors including fintech, ‘new space’, and synthetic biology.
• Innovative sector SIs are typically characterised by narratives of disruption, technological revolution, and total overhaul of established industries. The concept has proven fruitful for understanding how innovative sectors gain momentum and, as a result of buy-in to a particular future vision, are able to mobilise activities and resources in the present to bring that vision into reality.
• By investigating how innovative sector SIs mobilise resources in the present and, through this mechanism, contribute towards significant sociotechnical change, insights from this research are valuable for understanding technological transitions more broadly. This includes, for example, the UK Government’s vision (or ‘imaginary’) for an AI-enabled UK economy and the current policy drive in support of this future.

Theoretical Framework:

• This research analysed how the Sociotechnical Imaginaries concept, developed by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim, has been applied by STS scholars to understand disruptive sectors.

Key Findings:

• The final paper analysed scholarship on three distinct disruptive sectors - fintech, ‘New Space’, and synthetic biology - with the aim of understanding how disruptive imaginaries interact with and ultimately established sociotechnical orders.

Policy Insights:

• In the case of AI, competing sociotechnical imaginaries exist; visions for the future trajectory of the technology and how society could be organised around it vary between different governments and stakeholder groups.

To discuss this topic further or to read the full paper - ‘Examining the application of sociotechnical imaginaries to disruptive sectors’ - please contact me on Linkedin.