Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard

Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations: Workshop on Transformations to Sustainability in the 21st Century

May 28-29, 2024,
Harvard Kennedy School, Taubman T-520

Abstract

This workshop marks the culmination of several years of comparative research under the umbrella of the Belmont Forum for Collaborative Research. Entitled Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST), the project focused on transformations to sustainability in five countries (Germany, India, Kenya, UK, US) in three areas of crucial importance for sustainable development: energy systems, agriculture, and urban digital infrastructures. Each implicates intricate North-South linkages that need to be better understood for advancing global sustainability efforts. The GoST project used sociotechnical imaginaries as a conceptual tool to make sense of how collective imaginations of transformation have determined present conditions and are projecting new futures. A key finding of the project is that challenges in all three focal areas are related to prevailing imaginaries of progress, and solutions may require radically new imaginaries or new political infrastructures to give effect to submerged and marginalized imaginaries. The event brings together prominent sustainability scholars and policy practitioners, to explore how new technological developments and recent crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic have reshaped the politics of transition at local, national, and global levels.

View the program here.

Funded by the Belmont Forum for Collaborative Research