Paper short abstract:

In this collaborative piece, we reflect on the transformed ways in which urban activists in Switzerland and the Fridays For Future movement in Mexico - and we as researchers - localize and shape our repertoires of knowledge in light of interrupted future-making in times of the SARS-CoV-2 crisis.

Paper long abstract:

Creating collective imaginaries of the future is a central practice we observe in our respective fieldwork with the Fridays For Future movement in Mexico and urban activists in Switzerland. In light of the global pandemic, these collective imaginaries and the practices that forge them, such as concerted action in public space, were interrupted and now stand transformed. In our work, we investigate the potentials of said temporal and spatial interruptions (e.g. the digitalization or hyperlocalization of activism), examining ways in which counter-hegemonic knowledge practices, central to the struggles for built and natural environments, have morphed during the SARS-CoV-2 crisis.

Similarly, our own research trajectories have been reimagined to fit the demands of this recalibrated present: We have observed an increased need to establish spaces of collective thinking within our research communities. The repertoires of knowledge (della Porta & Pavan 2017) that shape both activism and ethnographic practice have been altered in such a way that unexpected connections and conversations - such as ours - can occur.

Putting our respective fieldwork insights in dialogue with each other, we aim to highlight the emancipatory potential of collective knowledge practices both in ethnographic and activist work, during the pandemic and beyond. We hope to illuminate the ways in which a) activist movements inhabit and occupy space changed to reflect interrupted futures, b) knowledge and expertise has gained renewed importance in redefining nuanced subjectivities, and c) we can carve out a space of collective thinking for engaged research within the constraints of the pandemic.