In simple terms, sociotechnical imaginaries are colectivlly shared ideas about a desired future based on visions of development embedded in science and technology projects. They are co-created by science, society and politics and appear in politicians' statements, policy documents, legislation, media spaces, pop culture and even everyday conversations.

Imaginaries can be dominant (supporting the status quo) or alternative or contesting (challenging the dominant system, influencing its change). 

For example, they can take the form of collective imaginaries that energy security is the most important thing or that nuclear energy is the main factor in the development and modernisation of a country. They can build the conviction that the world's most pressing need is to reduce consumption and drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, or they can shape reality according to a vision of the future in which the climate-environmental crisis will be halted not by reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and the energy transition, but by a bold geoengineering project that intervenes in our planet's atmosphere.

Sociotechnical imaginaries are forged from the visions of the future of individuals or groups in the course of social interaction. These visions must take on a collective dimension and an institutional character, i.e. they must be in the public sphere and reproduced by NGOs, trade unions, political parties, social movements, the media or the products of pop culture. Through their use by state, administrative and judicial structures, some of them may become known as dominant imaginaries. Such imaginaries of the future influence social practices, the definition of development policies, the allocation of government and private funds, the conduct of scientific research or the everyday decisions of politicians. However, specific developmental and research orientations lead to the production of new practices and technologies or unintended, unpredictable consequences. Also, non-anthropogenic factors (non-human actors) undeniably influence the social situation. The new social reality created by the influence of imaginaries creates space for alternative imaginaries to begin dominating. 

The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries makes it possible to understand why, despite the consensus on the anthropogenic of the climate-environmental crisis (including the destructive role of fossil fuel energy), the time pressure, the scale of the threat, the declarations of countermeasures by politicians and scientists and the broad acceptance of societies to protect the climate, energy transformation is occurring faster in some regions of the world and slower in others. 

Since this notion of sociotechnical imaginaries (SI) emerged in 2009, the concept has been gaining prominence, and many scientists have conducted their research using it. In the last ten years, the importance of the concept has increased, and more and more researchers are using AI in their research.