Compare methods

	Technological Frames Analysis	Sociotechnical Imaginaries Analysis
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1995	2009
Originator	Wiebe E. Bijker; extended to organisations by Wanda Orlikowski & Debra Gash	Sheila Jasanoff & Sang-Hyun Kim
Type	Qualitative interpretive method	Qualitative interpretive and comparative method
Seminal source	Bijker, W. E. (1995). Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change. MIT Press. ISBN: 9780262023764	Jasanoff, S., & Kim, S.-H. (2009). Containing the atom: sociotechnical imaginaries and nuclear power in the United States and South Korea. Minerva, 47(2), 119-146.
Aliases	Technological frame analysis, Frame incongruence analysis, Relevant social group framing	Sociotechnical imaginary analysis, Imaginaries of science and technology, Visions of desirable futures analysis
Related	4	4
Summary	Technological frames analysis examines the shared assumptions, goals, and problem-solving strategies through which groups make sense of a technology and act upon it. Introduced by Wiebe Bijker as part of the social construction of technology, a technological frame structures the interaction among members of a relevant social group and binds the meaning of an artefact to their concerns. Wanda Orlikowski and Debra Gash later carried the concept into organisations, showing how different stakeholder groups hold distinct frames about information technology and how the resulting frame incongruence shapes adoption and use. The method reconstructs these frames, analyses their content, and links them to technological outcomes.	Sociotechnical imaginaries analysis studies the collectively held, institutionally stabilised, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures that societies attach to science and technology. Introduced by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim in their 2009 comparison of nuclear power in the United States and South Korea, the concept treats imaginaries as more than rhetoric: they are co-produced with the material and political order, shaping how technologies are designed, governed, and lived. The method reconstructs these visions from public discourse, traces how they become embedded in institutions and policy, and compares how the same technology animates different imaginaries across nations or eras.