This article analyzes the contested sociotechnical imaginaries of biotechnology governance in Guatemala. Sociotechnical imaginaries are collectively imagined forms of social life reflected in the design and fulfillment of scientific and technological projects. Although often used to explain how one dominant protechnology imaginary became solidified within national cultures, sociotechnical imaginaries can be multiple and competing. I use the concept of contested sociotechnical imaginaries to examine the struggle among campesino and Indigenous activists, scientists, environmentalists, and state agencies over two biotechnology imaginaries. These imaginaries are biotechnology for development and retrospecting dispossession. These imaginaries play a key role in contentions over a proposed national seed inventory. I argue that the unequal power of these imaginaries helps explain increasing accommodation to biotechnology and the demobilization of powerful, heterogeneous coalitions opposed to genetically modified organisms.

本文分析了危地马拉生物技术治理的有争议的社会技术想象。社会技术想象是社会生活的集体想象形式，反映在科技项目的设计和实现中。尽管经常被用来解释一种占主导地位的技术想象如何在民族文化中得到巩固，但社会技术想象可以是多种多样的并且相互竞争。我使用有争议的社会技术想象的概念来研究农民和土著活动家、科学家、环保主义者和国家机构之间关于两种生物技术想象的斗争。这些想象是用于发展和追溯剥夺的生物技术。这些想象在对拟议的国家种子清单的争论中发挥了关键作用。