Imagined Futures in Science, Technology and Society

Imagining, forecasting and predicting the future is an inextricable and increasingly important part of the present. States, organizations and individuals continuously have to make decisions about future actions, financial investments or technological innovation, without much knowledge of what will exactly happen in the future. Science and technology play a crucial role in this collective attempt to make sense of the future. Technological developments such as nanotechnology, robotics or solar energy largely shape how we dream and think about the future, while economic forecasts, gene tests or climate change projections help us to make images of what may possibly occur in the future.

This book provides one of the first interdisciplinary assessments of how scientific and technological imaginations matter in the formation of human, ecological and societal futures. Rooted in different disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, and science and technology studies, it explores what various actors such as scientists, companies or states imagine the future to be like, and how they act upon that imagination. Bringing together case studies from different regions around the globe, it shows how science and technology create novel forms of imagination, thereby opening horizons toward alternative futures.

This book develops central aspects of the current debate on how scientific imagination and future-making interact, and in doing so, it provides a fresh look at the complex interrelationships between science, technology and society. It will appeal to scholars and advanced students in the fields of science and technology studies (STS), sociology and anthropology of science and knowledge, the history and philosophy of science and technology, sustainability science, and philosophy and sociology of culture.

Gert Verschraegen is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Antwerp. He holds a Phd in Sociology from the University of Leuven. He has widely published in the fields of sociological theory, transnational governance, human rights and science and technology studies.

Frederic Vandermoere is assistant professor at the Department of Sociology where he is a member of the research centre on Inequalities, Poverty, Social Exclusion and the City OASeS and affiliate member of the research team Society and Environment at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Antwerp.

Luc Braeckmans is professor in philosophy at the University of Antwerp. He is Director of Academic Affairs of the University Center Saint Ignatius Antwerp.

Barbara Segaert holds a master diploma in Oriental Studies, Islamic Studies and Arab Philology (KU Leuven), Belgium and a master in the Social Sciences (Open University), UK. Since 2002 she is scientific coordinator at the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp where she develops academic programmes on various topics of contemporary relevance to society.