When the future is connected to the term ‘imagination’, it is generally presented through the concept of the ‘imaginary’—that is, an image of the future that is related to a grand social image. In this article, we discuss the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries and argue that although this concept provides a needed perspective that allows scholars to unpack imaginaries associated with technological futures, it often features very broad concepts, hindering investigation of the ongoing dynamics of the actual acts of imagining and imagination. In contrast, we are interested in examining the processes and practices of imagination of socio-technical futures. Attempting to extend and deepen the development of this prevalent approach in STS, we make three incremental claims. First, future imaginaries should be addressed as a product of a process of imagination, not just in their final stable states. Second, exploring the process of future imagination reveals the effect of different temporalities—patterns of future imagination that expand the common singular far-future imaginary. Third, using a temporality-based analysis, we can identify different future planning techniques and practices in terms of their levels of formality and institutionalization.

中文翻译：

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揭开想象的盒子：高科技发展中未来想象技术的类型学


当未来与“想象”一词联系起来时，它通常是通过“想象”的概念来呈现的，即与宏大的社会形象相关的未来形象。在本文中，我们讨论了社会技术想象的概念，并认为尽管这个概念提供了一个必要的视角，使学者能够解开与技术未来相关的想象，但它通常具有非常广泛的概念，阻碍了对想象和想象的实际行为的持续动态的研究。相比之下，我们感兴趣的是研究社会技术未来的想象过程和实践。为了在 STS 中扩展和深化这种流行方法的发展，我们提出了三个增量声明。首先，未来的想象应该作为想象过程的产物来处理，而不仅仅是在它们最终的稳定状态中。其次，探索未来想象的过程揭示了不同时间性的影响——未来想象的模式扩展了共同的单一遥远未来想象。第三，使用基于时间性的分析，我们可以根据其形式化和制度化的程度来识别不同的未来规划技术和实践。