Dreamscapes of Modernity - by Sheila Jasanoff (Paperback)

About the Book

"Dreamscapes of Modernity" introduces and develops the concept of "sociotechnical imaginaries," demonstrating how it helps explain the divergent ways in which states and societies conceptualize futures achievable through and supportive of advances in science and technology. The book s case studieswhich range over health security, Apartheid, rice biotechnology, Indonesian activism, and moreillustrate how different imaginations of social life and order are created in concert with imaginations of the goals, priorities, benefits, and risks of science and technologyat scales ranging from national to global. The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries adds to the theoretical repertoire of the social sciences, and in so doing extends work dealing with collective beliefs about social order that until now has not been adequately attentive to the central role of science and technology in shaping human possibilities. Through their varied disciplinary training and their willingness to join a common conversation, the contributors to this volume reveal the concept s reach from science and technology studies to neighboring fields such as anthropology, history, history of science and technology, law, sociology, and public policy.
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Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Dreamscapes of Modernity offers a flexible, yet rigorous model for positioning politics at the center of STS by emphasizing the imaginative and normative as well as the material and institutional dimensions of scientific and technological projects. The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries represents a vital contribution not only to Science and Technology Studies, but also to fields such as critical geography, cultural studies, and political theory--a reminder that contemporary configurations of science, technology, and power could have been, and still can be, otherwise."--Daniel Williford "Technology and Culture"

"A valuable humanistic collection connecting the social history of science and the anthropology of science and technology with Jasanoff's signature contributions bridging science and technology studies, power, and the construction of social legitimacy."-- "Michael M. J. Fischer, author of Anthropological Futures"

"Here is a volume that succeeds at the difficult task of treating all societies symmetrically, whether in the global north, south, east, and west. Through the lens of sociotechnical imaginaries the authors show us telling comparisons between Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The result is a convincing deconstruction of the standard image of modernization and an equally convincing plea to engage in constructive politics. This volume should be obligatory reading for anyone engaging with how societies and science and technology shape each other and thereby our futures."-- "Wiebe E. Bijker, author of Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs"

"The essays in Dreamscapes of Modernity address the ways in which individuals, states, universities, and various corporate bodies conceptualize scientific and technological matters while translating this knowledge into visions for productive social, political, and technical change. Jasanoff and Kim offer a lucid and subtle analysis of the role of science and technology in producing norms, knowledges, and visions that cement relations of power. What is at stake in this very fine volume is a fundamental understanding of how social systems change or endure, cohere or fall apart."-- "Judy Wajcman, author of Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism"

"The individual essays in Dreamscapes are uniformly interesting and well researched, and Jasanoff's opening essay offers a sophisticated overview of a wide body of literature. The collection offers a valuable addition to scholarship at the intersection of STS, SHOT, Politics and Science Policy, and I expect will become widely read."-- "Metascience"

About the Author

Sheila Jasanoff is the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. Sang-Hyun Kim is associate professor at the Research Institute of Comparative History and Culture at Hanyang University in Korea.