During the last decade or so, most aspects of world politics have become saturated with
digital-technological devices and platforms such as smartphones and social media. Yet,
practice-oriented International Relations (IR) scholarship has not adequately accounted for
the profound impact of this technological transformation on how world politics is ‘done’
within, across and beyond the traditional institutional settings of global political affairs. This
paper addresses this gap by integrating the concept of ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ from Science
and Technology Studies (STS) into the study of practices and world politics. Sociotechnical
imaginaries encapsulate how technology intersects with society in and through collective
visions of the future. Drawing on interviews with international communication professionals
in Western European capitals, from across diplomacy and humanitarianism, we show how an
attention to ‘future imaginaries’ sheds new light on how the emergence of new technologies
(re)shape practitioners’ view of their role and agency in world politics. Concretely, we
find that, despite their different circumstances, these professionals exhibit similar patterns
of adaptations and evolving practices influenced by collectively perceived uncertainties and
promises associated with a future saturated by social media and algorithms. The article thus
contributes to a deeper understanding of the everyday interplay between technologies and
practitioners by emphasising the role of ‘future imaginaries’ in shaping world politics.