Promised future and possible future: science communication and technology at World’s Fairs and theme parks

World’s Fairs and scientific-technological theme parks have been propitious places for the communication of science and technology through modernity. This work addresses the issue of the construction of public discourse about the future within these sites, as well as the changing role attributed to science and technology as mediators in the relationships between nature and society. In both fairs and parks, science and technology play a leading role in the construction of the discourse about the desirable and achievable future. The practices of science communication and technology have specific forms, strategies and objectives, depending on the purposes of the discourse enunciators at different historical moments. This is exemplified through two cases: the 1939 New York World’s Fair and the EPCOT center in the U.S.