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.

The emergence of energy communities entails the development of alternative energy systems, where consumers become active participants in the complex networks of material and semiotic actors. This paper looks at how local sociotechnical imaginaries are performed on island of Gotland, in Sweden. Grounded in Science, technology and society studies and co-production theory, this study provides a framework analysis of a set of documents and an interview, through the identification of conflicting visions, or sociotechnical imaginaries, of energy transition locally. The Swedish energy system is adapting slowly to the changing environment, and conflicts have emerged between national and local imaginaries. Here, the literature fails to provide satisfying arguments around political processes leading to the creation of alternative visions of energy futures. This study shows how normative orientations shape and are shaped by each other, and how alternative visions of progress often fail to be actualized and performed as long as they exist in combination with dominant visions. The two imaginaries, on one side the dominant, on the other the radical, fail to come to terms with each other because of the structural inadequacy of a system dominated by a political rationality which is unaware of itself.

The purpose of research aid is to contribute to development in different ways through the use of research. Sarec (the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries) was one of the pioneers within state research aid, and existed between 1975 and 2008. This dissertation studies Sarec’s policy from a historical perspective with the help of official documents and interviews with former directors. Discourse theory together with concepts from Science and Technology Studies comprise the theoretical framework of the study. One of the central questions asked is how the view of the relationship between research and development has changed over time. One of the conclusions is that there are two main policy discourses that are established early on and that can be traced throughout the entire period studied. The two discourses share the starting point that modern science can contribute to development and that national research capacity is an important component in this. The localist discourse represents a more multifaceted view of how research can contribute to development, and what that development consist of. It is more explicitly anti-colonialist and to a greater degree prioritizes the local context as basis for decisions regarding support. The universalist discourse places less emphasis on where knowledge is produced since it can be used anywhere, as long as the right structures and priorities are in place. The discourses reflect different views of knowledge and development. Some decades one discourse dominates over the other, and other decades they are more equal. / Forskningsbistånd har som syfte att bidra till att forskning på olika sätt leder till utveckling. Sarec (the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries) var en av pionjärerna inom statligt forskningsbistånd och existerade mellan 1975 och 2008. I denna avhandling studeras Sarecs policy ur ett historiskt perspektiv med hjälp av offentliga dokument och intervjuer med före detta chefer. Diskursteori tillsammans med begrepp från teknik- och vetenskapsstudier utgör det teoretiska ramverket för studien. Frågor som ställs är till exempel hur synen på relationen mellan forskning och utveckling har förändrats över tid. En av slutsatserna är att det finns två stora policydiskurser som etableras tidigt och som går att följa under hela perioden. Båda innefattar en stark tro på modern vetenskap och dess möjlighet att bidra till utveckling, samt på att forskningskapacitet är en viktig komponent i detta. Den lokalistiska diskursen representerar en mer mångfacetterad syn på hur forskning kan bidra till utveckling samt vad denna utveckling är. Den är mer explicit antikolonialistisk i sin ansats och prioriterar i högre grad den lokala kontexten som grund för beslut kring stöd. Den universalistiska diskursen betonar att det spelar mindre roll var kunskapen produceras eftersom den kan nyttjas varsomhelst, bara rätt strukturer och prioriteringar finns på plats. Diskurserna speglar olika syn på kunskap och utveckling. Vissa årtionden dominerar en diskurs över den andra, och andra årtionden är de mer jämbördiga.

The thesis aims to explore future mobility system alternatives in the context of “winter cities” to achieve a more sustainable society. This is done by interviewing a broad range of mobility experts - encompassing those focused on cities in the northern regions and those with global expertise. The result highlights what (social and technological) innovations are believed to transform winter city mobility and what factors can play a key role in successful transformations. The relevance of the findings is illustrated with examples of their contextualization for the case of Skellefteå municipality, located in Sweden. / Studien syftar till att utforska framtida mobilitetssystemalternativ i sammanhanget "vinterstäder" för att uppnå ett mer hållbart samhälle. Detta görs genom att intervjua en rad olika mobilitetsexperter – som besitter erfarenhet och kunskap från städer lokaliserade i de norra regionerna samt de med global expertis. Resultatet belyser vilka (sociala och tekniska) innovationer som tros förändra vinterstadens mobilitet och vilka faktorer som kan spela en nyckelroll i en framgångsrik transformation. Studiens relevans påvisas genom att resultat illustreras med exempel på dess kontextualisering i caset Skellefteå kommun.

Cette thèse examine la formation des citoyens à l'Âge de l'information en comparant les visions et les pratiques d’alphabétisation et d’enseignement de la culture informatique aux enfants et au grand public aux États-Unis, en France, et en Union soviétique. Les programmes d'alphabétisation et d'acculturation informatique ont été lancés dans ces trois pays dans les années 1970 avec pour objectif l'adaptation des individus à la vie dans la société informatisée telle qu'elle était envisagée par les savants, penseurs et praticiens dans chaque contexte culturel et sociopolitique. La thèse porte sur les idées et influences de trois personnes qui ont joué des rôles importants dans la promotion des initiatives d'éducation en informatique dans chacun des pays étudiés : Seymour Papert aux États-Unis, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber en France, et Andrei Ershov en Union Soviétique. Selon ces pionniers, devenir alphabétisé ou cultivé en informatique signifiait plus qu’acquérir des compétences vis-à-vis de l’ordinateur ou bien apprendre à être un utilisateur passif du micro-ordinateur. Chaque pionnier envisageait une façon distincte d’incorporer la machine dans la manière de penser et d'être des individus -- comme une augmentation cognitive aux États-Unis, comme une culture en France, ou bien comme un partenaire dans l'Union Soviétique. Les hybrides hommes ordinateurs en résultant exigeaient tous une relation ludique à l'ordinateur personnel conçu comme un espace libre, non structuré et propice à l’exploration créatrice. Dans cette étude, je trace la réalisation de ces hybrides hommes-ordinateurs à partir de leurs origines dans les visions des quelques pionniers, de leur incorporation dans le matériel, les logiciels, et les programmes éducatifs, de leur développement dans les expériences locales avec les enfants et les communautés, et, enfin dans leur mise en œuvre à l'échelle de la nation. Dans ce processus d'extension, les visions des pionniers se heurtent à de puissants imaginaires sociotechniques (sociotechnical imaginaries) de l’État. Je montre alors pour chaque cas, comment, suite à la confrontation avec ces imaginaires, les visions des pionniers ne sont pas pleinement réalisées. En conclusion, je propose une lecture de la manière dont les imaginaires du Vingtième siècle de citoyens alphabétisés ou cultivés en informatique s’étendent au-delà de leurs points d'origine et se connectent à des aspects contemporains de la constitution des humains dans un monde informatisé. / In this dissertation I trace the formation of citizens of the information age by comparing visions and practices to make children and the general public computer literate or cultured in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union. Computer literacy and computer culture programs in these three countries began in the early 1970s as efforts to adapt people to life in the information society as it was envisioned by scholars, thinkers, and practitioners in each cultural and sociopolitical context. The dissertation focuses on the ideas and influence of three individuals who played formative roles in propelling computer education initiatives in each country: Seymour Papert in the United States, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber in France, and Andrei Ershov in the Soviet Union. According to these pioneers, to become computer literate or computer cultured meant more than developing computer skills or learning how to passively use the personal computer. Each envisioned a distinctive way of incorporating the machine into the individual human’s ways of thinking and being—as a cognitive enhancement in the United States, as a culture in France, and as a partner in the Soviet Union. The resulting human-computer hybrids all demanded what I call a playful relationship to the personal computer, that is, a domain of free and unstructured, exploratory creativity. I trace the realization of these human-computer hybrids from their origins in the visions of a few pioneers to their embedding in particular hardware, software, and educational curricula, through to their development in localized experiments with children and communities, and finally to their implementation at the scale of the nation. In that process of extension, pioneering visions bumped up against powerful sociotechnical imaginaries of the nation state in each country, and I show how, as a result of that clash, in each national case the visions of the pioneers failed to be fully realized. In conclusion, I suggest ways in which the twentieth-century imaginaries of the computer literate citizen extend beyond their points of origin and connect to aspects of the contemporary constitutions of humans in the computerized world.

Influential actors refer to smart grids as a revamped version of the energy systemwhen they argue for alternative energy pathways, and assign demonstration projects with the task of turning prospects about the future into functional configurations. This thesis explores notions of the smart grid future that are implicitly conveyed in Swedish smart grid strategy and planning documents. The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how a smart grid is assembled in a Swedish demonstration project. Inspired by Science and Technology Studies (STS), it explores this process through interviews, document studies and participant observation. By combining concepts such as sociotechnical imaginaries, material participation and translations, this study sheds light on the negotiations, tensions and struggles at play in the process of making smart grids functional. This study examines how included and excluded users make sense of the smart grid and of their own role in shaping the future. What imaginaries do the actors involved in the project draw on? What materialities take part in shaping the smart grid, and what user engagements are encouraged? The aim of the study is to seek an enhanced understanding of how smart grids are made, of the different forces that shape this process and, ultimately, of the reality of Swedish households as part of a smart grid in the making. This study shows that making a smart grid functional is not as feasible as the smart grid imaginaries suggest, and it finds potential in user engagements that are suppressed within the current market regime, which is primarily arranged around economic incentives. / Inflytelserika aktörer beskriver smarta elnät som ett sätt att modernisera energisystemet och sjösätter demonstrationsprojekt med uppgift att omforma potentiellt omvälvande visioner till fungerande konfigurationer. Denna avhandling undersöker vilka föreställningar om smarta elnät som implicit förmedlas i svenska strategi- och planeringsdokument, och beskriver och analyserar hur dessa visioner påverkar hur ett smart elnät sätts samman i ett svenskt demonstrationsprojekt. Inspirerad av teknik- och vetenskapsstudier (STS) analyserar avhandlingen denna process med hjälp av intervjuer, dokumentstudier och deltagande observation. Genom att kombinera teoretiska begrepp som sociotekniska föreställningar, materiellt deltagande (material participation) och översättningar, undersöker studien de förhandlingar, spänningar och konflikter som inträffar när smarta elnät blir till. Studien belyser också hur inkluderade och exkluderade användare förstår det smarta elnätet och sin egen roll när det gäller att forma framtiden. Vilka föreställningar om framtiden använder sig de aktörer som är involverade i projektet av? Hur inkluderas olika materialiteter i utformningen av det smarta elnätet och vilka typer av användare uppmuntras av den konfigurering som sätts samman i projektet? Syftet med studien är att nå en djupare förståelse för dels hur smarta elnät blir till och de olika krafter som bidrar till denna process, och dels hur svenska hushåll konstrueras som en del av smarta elnät. Studien visar att det är inte så enkelt att skapa fungerande smarta elnät som föreställningarna gör gällande, och den hittar en outnyttjad potential hos användarna vars deltagande dikteras av marknadsmässiga villkor och ekonomiska incitament snarare än ansvar och delaktighet.

The Swedish ecological breakthrough of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s entailed a rapid proliferation of competing perspectives on the environment, on man’s relation to it, and on the possible – dystopian or utopian – futures that lay ahead. By drawing on the theoretical concept of sociotechnical imaginaries as defined by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim, this thesis aims to explore the critical role played by these perspectives, and by these visions of the future, during this formative period of the emerging environmental consciousness and of early Swedish environmental politics. With this purpose in mind, the thesis examines the sociotechnical imaginaries mobilized in three Swedish books on environmental politics written by politically concerned scientists, as well as the two first environmental manifests published by the ruling Social Democratic Party in 1968 and 1972. By comparing the imaginaries mobilized in each text, the thesis then argues that the party incorporated certain elements of the critical perspectives into the dominant paradigm, but that they never wavered in their commitment to industrial development. The thesis also shows how these environmental imaginaries were used to legitimize political power, as well as the social democratic hegemony.