An imperative to innovate? Crisis in the sociotechnical imaginary

Abstract

The unprecedented challenges of recent years have given rise to a new wave of technologies that promise to solve the problems of crisis. Compelled by the increasingly tangible spectre of a disastrous future, crises are seen as opportunities where innovation may be – and must be – advanced. Responding to calls for theoretically-driven analyses of crisis technologies, this article considered the rising imperative to innovate. Drawing from sociological, STS and cultural studies concepts, this article shares findings from a textual analysis which identified a number of distinct crisis technologies, from AI-powered COVID-19 tracing platforms to wildfire visualisation systems and flooding prediction models. It examines the discursive strategies at play in these texts and considers what they reveal about how crises, innovation and its beneficiaries are imagined and designed for. Through this analysis, this article illuminates priorities, precedents and characteristic logics being set during this intensive period including speed, complexity, visualisation and vulnerability. By attending to how innovation and publics are being conceptualised within sociotechnical imaginaries, this article aims to raise generative questions on the impacts that crises are having on developing agendas and visions for technological change.