c:o/re Senior Fellow 11/24 – 04/25
Harro van Lente is Full Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Maastricht University, since 2014. He graduated in both Physics and in Philosophy at Twente University and did his PhD research at the same university. He is one of the founding fathers of the Sociology of Expectations, which studies how representations of the future shape current socio-technical developments. He has published more than 140 journal articles, book chapters and edited volumes on technology dynamics, innovation policy, sustainability, and knowledge production. He is recipient of the 2018 EASST Freeman Award with the co-edited book (with Marianne Boenink and Ellen Moors) at Palgrave Macmillan, Emerging Technologies for Diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease: Innovating with Care. He is Chair of the Board of the Dutch STS Research school WTMC and member of the Netherlands Health Council.
Epistemic Imaginaries – Research Fields between Digitalization and the Climate Crisis
In this project, I will investigate how epistemic imaginaries change in response to digitalization and the climate crisis. I propose to define epistemic imaginaries as textual or visual representations of an ideal set of future achievements within a research field. Such future achievements range from ‘holy grails’ of the field to be awarded with, say, a Nobel prize, to generic and mundane assessments of what, realistically, can be expected to be achieved in the near or not so near future. Clearly, epistemic imaginaries are part of epistemic cultures. They inspire and guide research fields at various levels: they inform research agendas of individual researchers, teams, institutes and fields. Epistemic imaginaries indicate but do not dictate research directions and agendas; there is room for maneuver. Some may be more prone to engage in high-risk-high-gain research directions, while others opt for safer, incremental strategies. Despite such differences, all researchers in a field are informed by the same set of ideal future achievements. Moreover, by defining what can be realistically be expected, epistemic imaginaries also discourage and constrain research agendas, directly by stating or suggesting something is impossible to achieve, or indirectly, by foregrounding other priorities.
The research question is: how do epistemic imaginaries change in response to digitalization and the climate crisis? The increasing use of ICT and AI in research leave their marks on research practices. The urgency of the climate crisis also affect many research fields, as it brings novel conditions and additional questions. I will study the following four fields: plasma chemistry, neurodegeneration research, conservation science and precision agriculture.
This project bridges two STS perspectives: the sociology of expectations and studies on epistemic cultures.
Publications (selection)
van Lente, Harro and Alexandra Supper (2024). The changing nature of innovation. In: Handbook of Technology Assessment, edited by Armin Grundwald. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 32-41.
Markard, Jochen, Wells, Peter, Yap, Xiao-Shan and Harro van Lente (2023). Unsustainabilities: A study on SUVs and Space Tourism and a research agenda for transition studies. In Energy Research & Social Science, 106, 103302.
van Lente, Harro and Peter Peters (2022). The future as aesthetic experience: imagination and engagement in future studies. In: European Journal of Futures Research 10(16).
van Lente, Harro (2021). Imaginaries in innovation. In: Handbook of Alternative Theories of Innovation, edited by Benoît Godin et al. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 23-36.
van Lente, Harro (2012), Navigating Foresight in a Sea of Expectations: Lessons from the Sociology of Expectations. In: Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 24(8), 789–802
