Abstract

Situational scenarios and prototype scenarios in particular are socio-technical futures that shape present socio-technical developments in a specific way. Scenario-building is about putting together heterogeneous components, some of which are already existing and some of which still have to be created. The requirement to adapt these present and future components to each other turns scenario-building into negotiating between the present and imagined futures. In this contribution, we focus on how the envisaged contexts of use are represented in these negotiations. Based on empirical research on technology development in the field of ubiquitous engineering, we distinguish between different forms of representation and assess their respective negotiation power.