Vision as make-believe: how narratives and models represent sociotechnical futures

Roßmann, Maximilian

doi:10.1080/23299460.2020.1853395

Cited by 19 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This means that actors accept these artifacts as "props" to represent imagined futures (Beckert, 2016, pp. 147-148;Roßmann, 2021) and legitimize expectations that are considered congruent with the artifacts. Hence, existing frameworks, prototypes, and exemplars can influence the shape and credibility of technological frames and expectations.…”

Section: Incongruent Expectation Work Scrutinizingmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Co-Shaping an Ecosystem for Responsible AI: Five Types of Expectation Work in Response to a Technological Frame

2022

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Governing artificial intelligence (AI) requires cooperation, although the collaboration’s form remains unclear. Technological frames provide a theoretical perspective for understanding how actors interpret a technology and act upon its development, use, and governance. However, we know little about how actors shape technological frames. In this paper, we study the shaping of the technological frame of the European ecosystem for responsible AI (RAI). Through an analysis of EU documents, we identified four expectations that constitute the EU’s technological frame for the RAI ecosystem. Moreover, through interviews with RAI actors, we revealed five types of expectation work responding to this frame: reproducing, translating, and extending (congruent expectation work), and scrutinizing and rooting (incongruent expectation work). Furthermore, we conceptualize expectation work as actors’ purposive actions in creating and negotiating expectations. Our study contributes to the literature on technological frames, technology-centered ecosystems, and RAI while also elucidating the dimensions and co-shaping of technological frames.

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Section: Incongruent Expectation Work Scrutinizingmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, they require that the approach be adjusted in relation to these issues. Similar to the "veto right" of sources in historical studies, these material factors are perceived to have a veto right regarding the narratives that are told about the future (Roßmann, 2021).…”

Section: Implications For Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-Shaping an Ecosystem for Responsible AI: Five Types of Expectation Work in Response to a Technological Frame

2022

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“…Methodologically, we place this work in the hermeneutical tradition of the study of technological imaginations (e.g., Verschraegen et al 2017) and vision assessment (e.g., Grin and Grunwald 2000), stemming from the technology assessment and the larger STS community (see an overview by Konrad et al 2016). The content-based analysis of rhetorical motives represents an analytical explorative method, building on a rich pool of empirical examples that investigate the narratives, constellations, and process dynamics in the construction of contested futures (e.g., Lösch, Armin, and Meister 2019; Roßmann 2020). As a research design, we employ a cross-national comparison of countries (Jasanoff 2015, 24).…”

Section: Methods: Toward An In-depth Discourse Analysis Of Ai Tech-po...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Talking AI into Being: The Narratives and Imaginaries of National AI Strategies and Their Performative Politics

Bareis

Katzenbach

2021

Science, Technology, & Human Values

180

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How to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the functioning and structures of our society has become a concern of contemporary politics and public debates. In this paper, we investigate national AI strategies as a peculiar form of co-shaping this development, a hybrid of policy and discourse that offers imaginaries, allocates resources, and sets rules. Conceptually, the paper is informed by sociotechnical imaginaries, the sociology of expectations, myths, and the sublime. Empirically we analyze AI policy documents of four key players in the field, namely China, the United States, France, and Germany. The results show that the narrative construction of AI strategies is strikingly similar: they all establish AI as an inevitable and massively disrupting technological development by building on rhetorical devices such as a grand legacy and international competition. Having established this inevitable, yet uncertain, AI future, national leaders proclaim leadership intervention and articulate opportunities and distinct national pathways. While this narrative construction is quite uniform, the respective AI imaginaries are remarkably different, reflecting the vast cultural, political, and economic differences of the countries under study. As governments endow these imaginary pathways with massive resources and investments, they contribute to coproducing the installment of these futures and, thus, yield a performative lock-in function.

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“…Visions provide a way of seeing the world, an interpretation of what the problems and possibilities of the present are, and sketch a picture of a desirable future and ways to get there. This is achieved through visionary narratives that tell a story of how to get into a specific desired future [44].…”

Section: Creating An Interface Between Present and Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Visions for Transformation—The Visions of the Green New Deal and the Politics of Technology Assessment, Responsible Research and Innovation, and Sustainability Research

2022

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Societal transformations are contested. The goals and visions of transformations, as well as the means and strategies to achieve them, are born in political conflict and power constellations. Which transformations are seen as desirable and possible by democratic majorities changes throughout history. This is the political reality where research for transformations finds itself. Technology assessment (TA), responsible research and innovation (RRI), and sustainability research (SR) are a part of such contestations. They engage in envisioning, debating, analyzing, and evaluating different visions of and options for the future. In this article we turn to visions of the future as a key aspect of societal contestation and the shaping of interfaces between research for transformations and society. Based on the approach of vision assessment developed in TA, we situate TA, RRI, and SR within visions of research and social order. We argue that in these politicized times it is increasingly necessary to understand how research relates to larger visions of society and the contested nature of transformations. We turn to one of the major contemporary visions for societal transformation: The Green New Deal (GND). This vision imagines a large-scale transformation of society and the economy towards sustainability and justice and is currently debated in major political institutions and social movements. It presents an ongoing case of the “making of the future”, which is highly relevant for TA, RRI, and SR. We show how this vision is creating new knowledge and social arrangements and how it is opening up new possibilities for transformational research. The article discusses the implications that a possible further impact of GND visions in politics may have for TA, RRI, and SR, and, relatedly, how expertise and insights from TA, RRI, and SR could significantly add to the GND debate.

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Vision as make-believe: how narratives and models represent sociotechnical futures

Cited by 19 publications

References 32 publications

Co-Shaping an Ecosystem for Responsible AI: Five Types of Expectation Work in Response to a Technological Frame

Co-Shaping an Ecosystem for Responsible AI: Five Types of Expectation Work in Response to a Technological Frame

Talking AI into Being: The Narratives and Imaginaries of National AI Strategies and Their Performative Politics

Contested Visions for Transformation—The Visions of the Green New Deal and the Politics of Technology Assessment, Responsible Research and Innovation, and Sustainability Research

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