Dreamscapes of Modernity

Book excerpt: 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.