Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Digital Touch

Abstract

This Chapter explores the potential of the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries for digital touch communication research and design. It defines the social imaginary and discusses how it works to produce and animate shared systems of meaning and belonging that guide and organize the world, in its histories as well as performed visions of desirable futures through advances in science and technology and imagined technological possibilities. The chapter explores the ways in which this concept can be employed as both a design resource, and as a methodological resource. We argue that as new digital touch technologies enter the communicational landscape the setting for interpersonal sociability is/will be reworked. We explore and make legible emerging sociotechnical imaginaries of digital touch, asking how might touch practices be changed through the uses of technology, and how might this shape communication. In particular, the chapter explores the core themes of the body, time, and place in relation to participants' sociotechnical imaginations of digital touch. Turning our attention to the sociotechnical imaginary as a methodological resource, we describe our use of a range of creative, making and bodily touch-based methods to access participants' sociotechnical imaginaries of digital touch and to both explore and re-orientate to the past, present and futures of digital touch communication.

Creative AI for HRI Design Explorations

“…In the preparation workshop, we also agreed on the theoretical framing of our design exploration around sociotechnical imaginaries. We discussed the concept and identified relevant literature [5,41,42], ensuring that all three participating researchers could become familiar with it. Chien and Hassenzahl [15] previously emphasised the importance of interpreting individual accounts of first-person research through design approaches in the light of theoretical knowledge.…”

“…Jasanoff and Kim [41] define sociotechnical imaginaries as "collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of advances in science and technology". As such, sociotechnical imaginaries can be employed as a design resource to inspire the future of technological innovation (e.g., robotics), for example, by drawing on or deliberately counteracting the imaginations of media and popular culture [42]; furthermore, the concept offers an analytical lens to examine how an idea or concept surrounding a sociotechnical assemblage aligns with or challenges a collective vision.…”

Sex (Ro)bots

“…As defined by Jasanoff & Kim, (2009) sociotechnical imaginaries are "collectively imagined forms of social life and social order" that can be traced in nation-specific technological and/or design projects. We find the sociotechnical imaginary participating vividly in scholarship concerned with advanced sociotechnical change that expands beyond its limits from a nation-bound approach to include sociotechnical imaginaries of the smart city, AI or digital touch (Natale & Ballatore, 2017;Sadowski & Bendor, 2018;Jewitt et al, 2020). Usually, sociotechnical imaginaries are instrumental and futuristic (Sovacool & Hess, 2017), portraying desirable futures, enveloping either dystopian or utopian narratives which mainly focus on materiality, meaning and morality (Jasanoff &Kim, 2015) to describe the material outcomes of the technologies, the meaning-making behind them and their wider moral implications (Sovacool &Hess, 2017).…”

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“…As defined by Jasanoff & Kim, (2009) sociotechnical imaginaries are "collectively imagined forms of social life and social order" that can be traced in nation-specific technological and/or design projects. We find the sociotechnical imaginary participating vividly in scholarship concerned with advanced sociotechnical change that expands beyond its limits from a nation-bound approach to include sociotechnical imaginaries of the smart city, AI or digital touch (Natale & Ballatore, 2017;Sadowski & Bendor, 2018;Jewitt et al, 2020). Usually, sociotechnical imaginaries are instrumental and futuristic (Sovacool & Hess, 2017), portraying desirable futures, enveloping either dystopian or utopian narratives which mainly focus on materiality, meaning and morality (Jasanoff &Kim, 2015) to describe the material outcomes of the technologies, the meaning-making behind them and their wider moral implications (Sovacool &Hess, 2017).…”