On Wednesday 17 July, academics Tomás Ariztía from Universidad Diego Portales and Tomás Undurraga from Universidad Alberto Hurtado, presented a paper “Anticipating Green Hydrogen: clean tech fairs and the making of energy futures” at the Quadrennial Joint Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) in Amsterdam. This event brought together experts from around the world to discuss the role of Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) in creating and making contributions to transformations in an era of great societal challenges.
In the panel “The past and future of hydrogen”, Tomas Undurraga presented the Fondecyt paper that analysed how technology fairs and green hydrogen world summits, held in Chile since 2019, have been instrumental in building energy futures, highlighting emerging technologies and investment opportunities. Based on ethnographic and archival analysis, the authors identified three key anticipatory practices at these events: the creation of atmospheres of imminence, the display of prototypes as materialisations of technological futures, and the use of visual representations, such as maps and renderings, to legitimise the economic and environmental value of green hydrogen. Ariztía and Undurraga concluded that these fairs have positioned green hydrogen as a central object of investment and speculation within green capitalism.
The meeting included panels, presentations and practical activities focused on the contribution of STS studies to social and technological transformations in a context of global challenges.