Building pathways between transdisciplinarity and transformation: Lessons from practice

The notion of “transformation” has moved from academic discussion and is now part of the discourse of public and private organizations. Here, we offer a systematic examination of how combining transformation and transdisciplinary approaches can support the transformation to sustainability. In recent years, the notion of “transformation” has moved from academia to the strategic agendas of public and private organizations. Within this discourse, both transdisciplinarity and co-production are often mentioned as means to enable transformation, particularly in debates about risks and opportunities in transformative science and problem-solving. However, there has been little systematic examination of the potential in combining these approaches to contribute more effectively in the transformation to sustainability. Building on an autoethnographic analysis of two projects in transformation and transdisciplinarity, we identify pathways to strengthen collaboration between these approaches: 1. moving from transdisciplinarity “for” transformation to transdisciplinarity “as” transformation and 2. identifying concrete spaces for conceptual and methodological cross-fertilization between these approaches. We discuss the challenges and elaborate recommendations for these pathways and conclude by offering a few insights on how communities can together foster effective sustainability solutions to societal challenges

Mindful anticipation: a practice approach to the study of expectations in emerging technologies

New technologies exist first only as semi-magic speculations of possible and potential futures. The construction of these futures lies in practices through which the relations between technology and society are embodied and shaped. Often, these practices remain unnoticed –mindless- overviewing the key decisions that are made in the present in the name of the future. This PhD thesis explores how these “anticipatory practices” constitute the futures of two emerging technologies: graphene and 3D printing. Working from a Science and Technology Studies and Governance perspective, the author proposes a framework to think – mindfully- how collective and implicit decisions made in the present matter for our shared future

The Future as Practice. A Framework to Understand Anticipation in Science and Technology

The future has become a common theme in governance of contemporary societies, particularly in the context of technological development. It is presented as open and uncertain, which, either as an opportunity or as a threat, demands a sense of urgency. Concretely, the future is embodied and made present through expectations, which have a performative effect in the constitution of socio-technical fields. These expectations are embedded in socio-material practices, through which they are produced, shared, shaped and contested. In this essay, I propose a framework to understand anticipation as a set of interrelated techno-scientific practices, which I call an anticipatory assemblage. This perspective has two contributions: first, it allows an in-depth understanding of phenomena such as technological hype cycles. Secondly, it frames the performative aspect of expectations in relation to governance, by considering how a series of anticipatory practices co-produce techno-scientific fields. I specify this framework using the case of two emerging technologies: graphene and 3D printing, for which I stress some of the differences in anticipatory practices and governance

Doing is believing: how material practices shape the future in 3D printing

This paper is part of the S.NET 2015 conference procedures volume " Practices of Innovation and Responsibility

How technology consultants assess the graphene and 3D printing hype

The hype-cycle is a phenomenon that is recurrently observed and spoken about in the context of emerging technologies. It is characterized by a wave of over-enthusiasm followed by a phase of disappointment, when promises are not met, and a later stage characterized by stabilization and maturity of the technology. A specific type of intermediary actor that has grown in relevance in recent years, known as technology consultants, plays an important role in assessing, deploying and making the “hype” visible within an innovation community. In this paper I study how technology consultants assess “the hype” for the case of two emerging technologies: graphene and 3D printing. We describe three different forms in which the hype is assessed: via technical expertise, as a social dynamic, and through social interaction. Each of these forms is a different way of arranging technologies, expectations, and actors, attributing different forms of agency to the innovation process. These three forms of “the hype” coexist as part of the activities of technology consultants and are used in different contexts. They allow consultants to maneuver and find a niche for their services in different contexts, while at the same time contributing to the co-production of an emergent field