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.

Author: Sheila Jasanoff
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 09/02/2015
Pages: 360
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9780226276526
ISBN10: 022627652X
BISAC Categories:
- Science | History
- Technology & Engineering | History
- Social Science | Sociology | General

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.