In his Imagined Futures, Jens Beckert suggests four ways in which fictional expectations make an impact on the social world: They coordinate actors by providing a common focus to their action They are able to shape the future by conditioning what action happens The freedom involved in fiction means they are […]
In his Imagined Futures, Jens Beckert offers a sociology of expectations which reconstructs the role of imagination in how people orientate themselves to the future. From pg 9: If actors are orientated toward the future and outcomes are uncertain, then how can expectations be define? What are expectations under conditions of uncertainty? That […]
An interesting CfP I’m saving for my future reference *Imagining Radical Futures: Anthropological Potentialities?* Princeton Anthropology Graduate Conference October 5th, 2018 Princeton University *“The facts, alone, will not save us. Social change requires novel fictions that reimagine and rework* *all that is taken for granted about the current structure of […]
A panel I’m organising with William Housley, Karen Gregory and Rebecca Coleman at Social Media & Society in June 2016 Social media is conventionally located within a commercial narrative that theorises an array of emerging ‘disruptive technologies’ that includes big data, additive manufacture and robotics. These and related technologies are […]
Who could object to a project that seeks to stop killer robots? The UK government apparently: The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, an alliance of human rights groups and concerned scientists, is calling for an international prohibition on fully autonomous weapons. Last week Human Rights Watch released a report urging […]
Call for Papers FUTURES IN QUESTION 11-12 September 2014 Goldsmiths, University of London How is the future imagined, planned for and manifested as the site of social and political struggle? Is the idea of progress towards a better future challenged as a result of financial, environmental, […]
