Visions of the future are omnipresent in current debates about the digital transformation. This introductory article and the full special issue are concerned with the function, power, and performativity of future visions and how they relate to the making and governing of digital technology. Revisiting existing concepts, we particularly discuss and advance the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries. In difference to ephemeral visions and partisan ideas, imaginaries are collectively held and institutionally stabilized. Nonetheless, we hold that they are multiple, contested, and commodified rather than monolithic, linear visions of future trajectories enacted by state actors. Introducing and summarizing the articles of the special issue, we conclude that imaginaries are increasingly dominated by technology companies that not only take over the imaginative power of shaping future society, but also partly absorb public institutions’ ability to govern these very futures with their rhetoric, technologies, and business models.

在有关数字化转型的当前辩论中，对未来的愿景无处不在。本介绍性文章和完整的特殊问题与未来愿景的功能，力量和性能有关，以及它们与数字技术的制定和管理之间的关系。回顾现有的概念，我们特别讨论和推进社会技术假想的概念。与短暂的愿景和党派观点不同，虚构的事物是集体持有的，并且在制度上是稳定的。尽管如此，我们认为，它们是国家行为者制定的对未来轨迹的多重，有争议和商品化的替代方案，而不是整体的，线性的方案。介绍和总结本期特刊的文章，