Short Abstract

‘I have a dream.’ This pithy statement is filled with hopes, possibilities, and change, and evokes images of political utopias. Dreaming—in all its meanings—is also polarisation. Does it divide the world into ‘dreamers’ and ‘realists’? How do dreams conform or reconfigure the contours of the world?

Long Abstract

This panel focuses on dreaming as the act of envisioning futures of positive change, whether for the self, one’s community, or the world. We use ‘dreaming’ specifically to refer to visions, daydreams, and imaginative projections of alternative futures rather than just private oneiric experience. We approach this form of dreaming not as a metaphor, but as a social, ethical, and political practice through which futures are crafted and lived in the present, including visions of reform, abolition, repair, and collective flourishing.

We distinguish between realist dreaming—visions that navigate and seek improvement within existing structures—and idealistic dreaming, which imagines futures that do not yet exist, including possibilities for healing, abolition, and reconciliation beyond present forms of oppression and polarisation. Crucially, we resist quick value judgments about these modes. Rather than assuming one is naïve and the other pragmatic, we explore how each can generate or resolve polarisation, reproduce or challenge hierarchies, and either reinforce or radically transform social worlds. Dreams not only divide “dreamers” from “realists”; they also broaden political horizons by multiplying possible worlds. Some forms of polarisation deepen antagonism; others expand the space of diversity and co-existence.

Cases include: British Muslims imagining political belonging through either incremental success within current structures or abolitionist futures beyond coercive state power; Indigenous Himalayan communities whose dreams encompass more-than-human relations; Indian political consultants crafting collective dreamscapes in electoral campaigns; and ethnic minority activists envisioning peaceful sovereign nationhood in different parts of the world. This panel will explore further cases of dreaming oriented toward sustaining and strengthening present arrangements as well as dreaming that challenges existing structures and imagines alternative futures. We will analyse diverse dream-logics, their ethical stakes, and their varied implications for continuity, change, and forms of polarisation.

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