1268 | | The making of (un)sustainable futures through socio-technical promising | Markku Lehtonen (1); Tapio Litmanen (2)
This session invites papers on the role of techno-scientific promises in shaping the future trajectories, sociotechnical landscapes, territories, and ultimately entire societies in their efforts towards sustainability. The session also explores the roles the various promissory communities and their contestants in shaping the construction and consequences of such promises.
A techno-scientific promise can include relatively vague visions (“umbrella promises”) like those relating to broad energy transitions or to a generic technology category (e.g. wind energy, nanotechnology, or artificial intelligence), but also expectations concerning a specific technology design (e.g., a novel nuclear reactor design), its cost and likely deployment time, etc. Promises are not mere talk or discourse – they make things happen, by aligning actors, institutions, and capital; they guide activities, provide structure and legitimacy, help attract interest and foster investment (Borup et al. 2006; Joly 2010; van Lente 2012). Promises are collectively constructed, being institutionalised in, for example, policies, laws, regulation, and funding decisions. They are materialised in for instance R&D projects, prototypes, and commercial applications (Parandian et al. 2012). To be institutionalised and materialised, a promise needs to gain legitimacy by addressing a widely recognised societal problem, and credibility by demonstrating its practical viability (Joly 2010). The construction of promises typically entails controversies between promissory communities and their detractors, which thereby test the societal robustness of the promises, including their compatibility with society’s perceptions of the meaning and objectives of sustainability (Chateauraynaud 2011).
Papers in this session can include theoretical or empirical analyses of techno-scientific promising on topics such as (not an exclusive list):
•The interaction of discourse, institutions, and material artefacts in the construction of promises
•The creation, shaping, maintenance and policy role of the various promissory communities, including epistemic communities, networks congregated around “promise entrepreneurs”, ecomodernist and degrowth communities, etc.
•The spatial underpinnings and implications of promise-construction and community-creation (spatial limitations to promise-construction, impacts of promise-construction on the involved territories, at various spatial scales…)
•The role of public controversies: the dynamics between promise-construction and promise-deconstruction – between promissory communities and their contesters – in enhancing or undermining the societal robustness of promises
•Material, institutional implications (e.g. on the territories and communities designated to host R&D projects, prototypes and commercial projects) from promise-construction, including those from failed promises.
Markku Lehtonen (1); Tapio Litmanen (2)
(1) Pompeu Fabra University, (2) University of Jyväskylä
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