The rise of graphene expectations: Anticipatory practices in emergent nanotechnologies

Graphene is a material consisting of ideally one layer of carbon atoms that has been claimed to enable a new wave of disruptive technological innovation. Similar to other techno-scientific fields, graphene research has been populated with far-reaching promises and expectations, and claimed to be subject to over-promising and hype. This article builds on a practice-based approach to understand how expectations contribute to the emergence of the techno-scientific field of graphene. We follow the anticipatory practices that constituted different arenas where expectations on graphene have been voiced, spread and assessed. These arenas relate to scientific, policy and market actors, and anticipatory practices reach from the circulation of promises in high-profile journals, via roadmapping to calculative practices that shape emergent markets. We investigate the specific forms of performativity that different practices create, and how these practices have contributed to the emergence and governance of the graphene field.