The goal of my dissertation is to describe the history of the South Korean1 space program and to use it to offer some insights on reframing space history from a global point of view. South Korea is a new player among the space faring nations. While some of the necessary infrastructure was put in place in the 30 years after the launch of Sputnik, the country only really made a commitment space in the 1990s, developing rapidly to become a significant presence today. The launch of KITsat-1 (Uribyul-1, the first Korean satellite) in 1992 marks its first major achievement, after which it built up its technological capabilities in the space sector in a relatively short period. South Korea now has twelve satellites and operates several space projects, and successfully developed its first space launch vehicle, KSLV-1, also known as Naro, in 2013. Although KSLV-1 is derived from the first stage of the Russian Angara rocket, combined with a solid-fueled second stage built by South Korea, its successful launch was the crucial step for the development of the country’s civilian space program. South Korea aims to develop the first wholly Korean-made launch rocket, KSLV-2 by 2020, which will additionally be used to launch a moon orbiter later that year. Korea’s recent aspiration to space exploration can be seen as part of global narrative in which the conquest of space is not dominated by a few superpowers. Our understanding of the past half-century of space development is, however, still firmly rooted in the framework of the old Cold-War-centered approach to space history. Until recently, only large and powerful nations have been able to mobilize the resources necessary for access to space, so the early years of space exploration produced a simple narrative: a fierce space competition between the Soviet Union and the U. S., with a few countries following behind in a struggle to increase their presence in space. Yet emerging powers’ stories of space development were barely noticed in comparison with the abundant literature on the space history of the super-powers and the increasing literature on middle-range space powers. In order to situate the South Korean space program in this evolving global context, this dissertation attempts to answer the following critical questions: What is the origin of Korean space development? Why is South Korea a late-comer in space, and why is it becoming more active today? How have its motivations and rationales evolved in defining relationships with other countries including the U.S., Russia, France, China, Japan, and even North Korea? Why does it continue to emphasize the need for “Korean” technology in space? In essence, what is Korean about the Korean space program? I seek answers to these questions by examining the relationship between a “space program” and “the construction of national identity” in a political, social, and transnational context. Through historical analysis, I will show that South Korea’s space program has been primarily driven by nationalistic rationales implicit in the argument that space development served “modernization,” “self-defense,”, “economic security”, and “national prestige.” By tracing the multiple links between technological prowess and national imagination, I connect these four rationales using to periodization; 1950s~1960s, 1970~1984, 1985~1997, and 1998~2013. A close examination of the history of the development of space exploration in South Korea offers a fertile ground for exploring the question how the rationales of space development have evolved as the Korean state worked on nation-building in a global context.

In an age of shrinking research and development (RandD) budgets, sustaining big science and technology (SandT) projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Why, despite unfulfilled visions and broken promises, has the grand fusion enterprise endured? How can such a long-term enterprise persist in a funding culture that largely works in short-term cycles? Adapting Sheila Jasanoff's thesis of "sociotechnical imaginaries", I examine the relationship of shared and contrasting visions, co-produced expressions of nature and society, and distinctpolitical cultures in the quest for viable fusion. A systematic cultural and technological comparison of three fusion ventures, the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and Wendelstein-7X, exposes how these projects and the institutions they inhabit frame the goals, risks, and benefits of the fusion enterprise and sustain a common set of fusion imaginaries. Positioned within the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the United States, the international ITER Organization sited in France, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, the three projects are prime examples of big science and technology. Rigorous research and analysis of these cases advance the thesis of the unfulfilled utopian vision of fusion energy that has endured for more than sixty years. / Doctor of Philosophy / In an age of shrinking research and development budgets, sustaining big science and technology projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Beyond articulating a possible path forward for the fusion enterprise, the intent of this study is to inform decision makers who will shape energy strategy for the second half of the twenty-first century.

abstract: This dissertation explores the contemporary politics of global transformation: the ways biological expertise and economic rationalities are positioned as agents of governance in the face of emerging global crisis. It examines visions for a new bioeconomy that are offered in response to impending global crisis. Leaders point to calculations of global population growth and resource depletion to predict future crises and call for a new bioeconomy as a pillar of sustainable and “good” governance. Focusing on visions and practices of bioeconomy-making in the U.S. and Brazil, the dissertation examines bioeconomy discourse as a response to global crisis and a framework of global governance that promises resource abundance and human wellbeing. Bioeconomy discourse makes visible shared notions of how the world is and how it should be that animate the world-making practices of bioeconomy. The dissertation analyzes the bioeconomy as simultaneously a product of existing institutional and nationally situated values and rationalities, and a significant site of performative novelty. It is an effort to reformulate existing projects in the biosciences—from technology regulation to market formation—and establish new rationalities of governance in the name of producing thoroughgoing transformations to both the global economy and to life itself. Framing existing scientific and economic rationalities as suppressed and misdirected in their power to govern, bioeconomy proponents envision a novel order derivable from the proper conjugation of biological and economic rationalities. Through the lens of bioconstitutionalism, the dissertation elucidates how national, scientific and public rights and responsibilities are coproduced in relation to a sociotechnical imaginary of vital conjuring. Underwritten by the imaginary of vital conjuring, visions of a future transformed promise that abundance and order can be called up from a tangle of crisis and decay. The imaginary of vital conjuring marries a vision of the technological potential of biological life and the forms of economy capable of unlocking that potential. This vision of bioeconomy, the dissertation argues, is a vision of governance: of the right relationships between state, citizen and science. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2020

En viktig del i diskussioner av kärnkraft är frågan om det avfall som skapas i driften av kärnreaktorer. Undersökningen har identifierat en förändring i uppfattningen av avfall under perioden mellan 1956, då kärnkraften var i sitt tidiga stadium, och 1980 då densamma har implementerats kommersiellt i Sverige. Uppsatsens syfte är att närmare förstå vilken roll diskussioner om kärnenergins restprodukter hade under denna förändring. Detta görs genom att använda sig av statens offentliga utredningar som material och användning av Sheila Jassanoff och Sang-Hyun Kims teoretiska ramverk sociotechnical imaginaries. Dessa används båda för att belysa utvecklingen av synen av avfallet som skapas av kärnenergin. Materialet visar hur avfallsfrågan diskuterades av experter och hur problematik eller icke-problematik togs upp till regeringen som hade beställt utredningen.

This essay examines visions of the future in Alex Garlands 2015 film Ex Machinausing critical futures studies and posthumanist theories. The aim is to make visible howfutures are constructed and how artificial bodies are coded based on ideas of the future.Through an image and discourse analysis, the essay shows how “Western” society isstructured and how it is expected to be structured in the future. While the previous researchmainly focuses on phenomenology and gender, this essay shows that intersectional methodscan be helpful in making visible how power structures influence how we construct and viewbodies. In addition, the analysis shows how images of the future are multifaceted andcomplex, while at the same time they reproduce hegemonic visions of the past, present andfuture. In summary, this essay shows how the visions of the future in Ex Machina areprimarily based on a “Western” scientific tradition that reproduces colonial and patriarchalideals, though they are consistently challenged by the existence and actions of the cyborgs.

Despite significant efforts at improving requirements engineering in the development of military systems, defense procurement is still plagued by expensive, well-publicized failures. Central to requirements engineering is the concept of rationality – more reason is assumed to eventually ‘solve’ the problem of defense requirements engineering. This thesis suggests that rationality, instead of being an objective standard, might be part of a socially constructed framework for action. Leaning on Science and Technology Studies for a theoretical framework, it is suggested that rationality and irrationality is part of a larger sociotechnical imaginary which outlines desirable outcomes, actions, and values in military systems development. This thesis presents an interview study of requirements analysts in the Swedish defense sector to outline if and how rationality relates to the narrative of this potential imaginary. The results indicate that a Swedish defense requirements engineering imaginary consists of a rationality/irrationality dichotomy which sets the stage for action in a state of chaos, and that the narrative associated with that imaginary enables the

The concept and practice of surveillance has long existed in our society, yet with the development of technology, it has taken on new forms and capabilities. As a result, surveillance technology has become integrated in our society, influencing norms and shaping imaginaries surrounding it. While many existing studies have thoroughly examined people's experiences with surveillance technologies, there has been little attention paid to the efforts of advocacy groups in challenging and reshaping the mainstream imaginaries regarding surveillance technology. Using narrative analysis, this thesis aims to address this gap and explore the sociotechnical imaginaries surrounding facial recognition technology of four advocacy groups: a) Fight for the Future, b) Big Brother Watch, c) Electronic Frontier Foundation, d) Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. This study uncovers that these groups' shared sociotechnical imaginary aligns closely with modern liberal ideals, highlighting the possibility of separating public and private life, the necessity for not only moderate government intervention, but healthy commercial competitions, as well as public education. In other words, I argue that resisting against a particular technology and its associated power dynamics does not always represent a challenge to the fundamental power structure.

In recent years, scholars of science and technology studies (STS) have increasingly turned their attention to the role of collective imagination in shaping sociotechnical futures. This scholarship leaves open the question of how the collectives involved in bringing these futures to life come into being. Starting with one episode in the ongoing conflict over the construction of Coastal GasLink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in settler-colonial Canada, this discourse analysis draws on scholarship in feminist, anticolonial, and co-productionist STS to study this process of collective formation in relation to sociotechnical futures. It does so by examining how oil and gas workers become enrolled into a sociotechnical imaginary I call Canadian resource techno-nationalism. Comparing media and politicians’ representations of oil and gas workers with White workers’ representations of themselves indicates that they can end up participating in this imaginary regardless of their affinity to it. Examining policy documents and scholarly literature about the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges in impact assessment, as well as political debates and mainstream media coverage about the conflict over the Coastal GasLink pipeline, draws attention to how elites’ active construction and protection of the boundary between knowledge and politics works to enroll Indigenous people into oil and gas jobs and, therefore, into the collective performing Canadian resource techno-nationalism. In both cases, elite actors deploy the resources at their disposal in ways that help funnel oil and gas workers into lives imagined for them, securing the power of the settler state in the process. This dynamic illustrates the importance of disentangling participation in the collective performance of sociotechnical imaginaries from freely given consent. Residents of liberal states can end up performing dominant imaginaries less out of any sense of affinity to them than as a response to the disciplinary power these imaginaries help sustain.

Historical accounts depict NASA's interactions with American citizens beyond government agencies and aerospace firms since the 1950s and 1960s as efforts to 'sell' its human space flight initiatives and to position external publics as would-be observers, consumers, and supporters of such activities. Characterizing citizens solely as celebrants of NASA's successes, however, masks the myriad publics, engagement modes, and influences that comprised NASA's efforts to forge connections between human space flight and citizens after Apollo 11 culminated. While corroborating the premise that NASA constantly seeks public and political approval for its costly human space programs, I argue that maintaining legitimacy in light of shifting social attitudes, political priorities, and divided interest in space flight required NASA to reconsider how to serve and engage external publics vis-à-vis its next major human space program, the Space Shuttle. Adopting a sociotechnical imaginary featuring the Shuttle as a versatile technology that promised something for everyone, NASA sought to engage citizens with the Shuttle in ways appealing to their varied, expressed interests and became dependent on some publics' direct involvement to render the vehicle viable economically, socially, and politically. NASA's ability and willingness to democratize the Shuttle proved difficult to sustain, however, as concerns evolved following the Challenger accident among NASA personnel, political officials, and external publics about the Shuttle's purpose, value, safety, and propriety. Mapping the publics and engagement modes NASA regarded as crucial to the Shuttle's legitimacy, this case study exposes the visions of public accountability and other influences -- including changing perceptions of a technology -- that can govern how technoscientific institutions perceive and engage various external publics. Doing so illuminates the prospects and challenges associated with democratizing decisions and uses for space and, perhaps, other technologies managed by U.S. government agencies while suggesting a new pathway for scholarly inquiry regarding interactions between technoscientific institutions and external publics. Expanding NASA's historical narrative, this study demonstrates that entities not typically recognized as space program contributors played significant roles in shaping the Shuttle program, substantively and culturally. Conceptualizing and valuing external publics in these ways may prove key for NASA to sustain human space flight going forward. / Ph. D.

This study addresses the issue of how discourses around Artificial Intelligence have been presentedin national media. To explore this topic, I analyze news articles to identify narratives and imaginariesthat contribute to building the concept of AI from a North-South perspective. To attempt toanswer these questions, I have selected two different countries to gather the data from, one in theGlobal North (Sweden) and one in the Global South (Chile). However, both are located in thesame “Large/Medium” cluster when combining land area and population.Drawing on data collected from 103 news articles, I found that in both cases, AI is presented asa positive tool for the development of local and global economies. Furthermore, AI is seen asdriving the creation of exciting and disruptive businesses. However, my analysis shows that thereis uncertainty about the future of the current status quo, both regarding the labor market and thecurrent geopolitical power balance if China were to win the so-called ‘AI race.’The data was coded and analyzed using a combination of critical discourse analysis and a dataextractivism and the approach introduced by Sheila Jasanoff, the sociotechnical imaginaries. Theseperspectives can help to understand the relations between scientific and technological projects,and political institutions and power. Throughout the sample, the hegemonic (dominant) voice prevailedthrough discussions of the economy having a particular North-centric representation.This is important to explore as it can shed light on whether this new technology is to providereal opportunities or if it is replicating the power relations of the globalized world. In this sense,the study also criticizes the sociotechnological imaginaries since, despite the fact that they proposea local view of power relations, they confirm that technological developments are often subject toglobal, political and corporate planning, regardless of the particular reality of each country.