| Kommentar |
The concept of the future, its prognostications and applications, function increasingly to shape present social worlds. From migration and border policy to the work places of tomorrow, imaginations of the future take concrete form and enjoy a powerful purpose. Future concepts and future talk are influential tools for assessing and shaping the present, be it with regards to questions of social coexistence, work worlds, global conditions of inequality or the emergence of new political orders. They do not just exist – futures are made as well as constantly performed and represented. At the same time, we want to grasp various critiques of future-orientated thinking and additionally highlight the fragility of the future as a concept. Who is being excluded or marginalized when we talk about the future? How is the future invented, researched and renounced? How are time and temporality being practiced, narrated, placed, and made tangible? Specifically, this seminar aims to investigate the very parameters of power and inequality that arise from future thinking. How are time and temporality intertwined with intersectional categories such as gender, race, sexuality, social class, etc.?
Students will develop their own research topic and conduct minor ethnographic research (focus on future and migration/mobility; future and urban societies; future and work worlds). Since this seminar is a preparation for an up-coming project-seminar (EE Modul 8) in WS 2018/19, this course requires the capacity to work collaboratively and comes with a heavy reading load. |
