Transformation through (re-)politicisation of socio-technical futures: how cultural semiotics can improve transformative vision assessment

Abstract

The politicisation of the future is gaining attention, especially in research on the impact of emerging technologies on modern societies. This observation has motivated technology assessment (TA) and related research in science and technology studies (STS) to involve transformative practices in their examination of existing socio-technical futures in order to adapt them to societal needs. To this end, participation processes are initiated that aim to bring together different stakeholders, from research and development and beyond, to debate existing visions of the future and to confront the different stakeholders with their own ideas and the consequences thereof. Currently, however, especially in the context of responsible research and innovation (RRI), voices are also calling for reflection on the process of participation itself. We reflect on the process of framing discussions in society based on technical visions of the future from a cultural studies perspective.Building on cultural semiotic analysis and our definition of visions of the future as cultural techniques, this paper discusses the consequences of the orientation along the future in transformative research. Cultural semiotics provides a kind of meta-reflection on the role of research in TA and STS on the politicisation of the future. We fall back on the definition of visions of the future as cultural techniques to show that visions of the future not only originate in modern culture, but also contribute to its further development.Using the example of the transformative vision assessment project on 3D printing futures conducted within the research cluster “3D Matter Made to Order (3DMM2O)”, and based on the cultural semiotic approach, we reflect on the prerequisites and limitations of the politicisation of the future and the intervention of transformative vision assessment in politicisation processes. The limitation stems from the fact that vision assessment, and more generally TA, is oriented in its intervention towards visions of the future and thus itself contributes to the further politicisation of the future. To elaborate the preconditions of the dynamic and culture-changing effects of visions of the future, we turn to the concept of cultural mechanism to grasp different steps of the politicisation processes in which vision assessment practices are involved. The role of vision assessment in the politicisation process is unavoidable; however, it can be mitigated by meta-reflection on its own orientation to the future.