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- Convenors:
-
Karl Palmas
(Chalmers University of Technology)
Ulises Navarro Aguiar (University of Gothenburg)
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- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
Short Abstract
Commenting upon the suggestion that our time is marked by a "slow cancellation of the future", Richard Tutton has called for empirically-oriented studies of “futurelessness”. This panel explores whether or not this sense of “lost futures” is indeed experienced within the design professions.
Description
Starting in the late noughties, cultural theorist Mark Fisher observed how the contemporary social condition is marked by the loss of a future. (Fisher, 2013) Tormented by the loss of political dreams that failed to materialize, he described a cultural state of being “haunted” by memories of a time when one could hope for a better, alternative future. Citing social philosopher Franco Berardi, Fisher argued his generation had been witness to a “slow cancellation of the future”.
More recently, sociologist and STS scholar Richard Tutton (2023) has pointed out that these accounts are presented by theorists concerned about alternative futures to neoliberalism. While valid in their own right, Tutton points out, they “offer little empirical evidence that such feelings are experienced by groups of people in their everyday lives”. (Tutton, 2023: 448) He thus calls for a more empirically-oriented studies of “futurelessness” – a term sourced from psychology, based on studies of young people who find that their personal future opportunities are foreclosed, implying that it is futile to plan for the future.
Heeding this call, this panel invites contributions that provide further empirical substantiation of whether or not a sense of “lost futures” or “futurelessness” is indeed experienced in particular professional settings. For Fisher, the loss of the future can be traced in popular culture – not least pop music – which seems to have lost the ability to grasp the present, and produce work that consciously seeks to articulate alternative futures. In this vein, this panel invites empirically informed work that focuses on how such a loss of futures is – or isn’t – expressed within the design professions, such as design, architecture, planning, or engineering.
References
Fisher, M. (2014) Ghosts of My Life: Writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures. Winchester: ZerO Books.
Tutton, R. (2022). The Sociology of Futurelessness. Sociology, 57(2).