Written by Yotam Rozin   FROM PEOPLE, FOR PEOPLE, the slogan was slickly displayed in a bold geometric sans-serif font on the clean white walls of an exclusive new concept store SELF by Julian Hertzel, alongside large LED screens with high-end promotional videos for its products. The pop-up store, by one of Europe’s most celebrated…

Written by Hymke Theunissen   A hand drawn guide pops up on my Instagram. Quickly scribbled and colourful reusable items are surrounded by little green leaves. A bottle, a bag and some second-hand clothes circle around the text “CREATE LESS WASTE.” The guide looks simple. The items seem to carelessly dance in a happy green…

Written by Duncan W. Lievi   In “Future Imperfect: Science, Technology, and the Imaginations of Modernity,” Sheila Jasanoff (2015) defines her concept of socio-technical imaginaries. One of the most engaging points, even though very explicit, in the text was the relationship between social structures and knowledge. Jasanoff, referring to one of her earlier works, writes,…

Written by Yao Chen   Hikikomori, a Japanese neologism, signifies a portion of Japanese population, mainly young men aged from 15 to 35, who withdraw into their homes or ‘willfully’ shut themselves off from the social sphere (Overell 2018, 206). A governmental survey shows that the “first-generation hikikomori,” the oldest among them, have isolated themselves…

Written by Lilian Karr   Sociotechnological Imaginaries shape how we see the world and influence our decision-making. Those imaginaries happen on different planes. For example, there are national sociotechnical imaginaries: “collectively imagined forms of social life and social order reflected in the design and fulfillment of nation-specific scientific and/or technological projects.” When reading what Sheila…