Sociotechnical Imaginaries

Sociotechnical imaginaries are collectively held, institutionally stabilized 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. Developed by Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim, the concept explains how societies organize their relationship to technological change through shared stories about what the technology will do and what kind of world it will create. An imaginary is not marketing or propaganda — it is deeper and more structural, shaping not just public opinion but institutional priorities, funding decisions, regulatory frameworks, and the design choices of builders. The AI moment has produced competing imaginaries: the productivity imaginary (AI as capability amplifier and democratizer), the existential risk imaginary (AI as civilizational threat), and the democratic imaginary (AI as constitutional question). These imaginaries are not true or false but generative — they determine what gets built, what gets funded, and what gets governed.