21 February

The emergence of an envisioned future. Sense making in the case of "industry 4.0".

Date: 21 February 2018
Time: 12.30 - 14.00 hrs
Venue: Ravelijn, RA 1315
Speakers: Dr. Uli Meyer, Technical University of Munich, Munich Center for Technology in Society 

ABSTRACT:

Technology based, envisioned futures have a significant influence on the dynamic of technological development and, as a consequence, on societies. If such envisioned futures are successful, they contribute to the formation of a field based on this topic. Within such a field, organizations orient their activities on the envisioned future and coordinate their activities. Uli Meyer uses the example of the term “Industrie 4.0” in Germany to analyze why, how and when such an imagined future emerges, diffuses and stabilizes. To do so, he brings together concepts from organization studies (OS) with existing concepts from science and technology studies (STS). He argues that for a more detailed understanding of envisioned futures’ impact on the present, an analysis of the role and the activities of organizations and the formation of organizational fields in such processes is essential.