Future

The concept of the future, its predictions, desires, and applications increasingly shape contemporary social worlds. From migration and border policies to the workplaces of tomorrow, ideas about the future take on concrete forms and exert significant influence. Concepts and discussions of the future are powerful tools for evaluating and shaping the present, whether in matters of social coexistence, work environments, global inequalities, or the emergence of new political orders. Futures do not simply exist – they are made and constantly performed and represented.

At the same time, Cultural Futures Studies focuses on how various critiques of future-oriented thinking are articulated and practiced. This research explores the fragility of the future and its potential for social conflict. Who is privileged, excluded, or marginalized when we talk about the future? How is the future imagined, studied, and contested? How are time and temporality practiced, narrated, situated, and made tangible? Cultural Futures Studies investigates parameters of power and inequality that emerge from future-oriented thinking. How are time and temporality intertwined with interdependent categories such as gender, sexuality, social class, and so on?