Anticipatory Knowledge, Future Imaginaries and Societal Agency in Ecological Transformations (Part II)

Thursday, 10 July 2025: 11:00-12:45
Location: SJES003 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
RC24 Environment and Society (host committee)
RC23 Sociology of Science and Technology

Language: English and French

The future space of climate and environmental policy has long been populated by technocratic visions of the future produced by models and scenarios from the natural, economic and engineering sciences, on the one hand, and by apocalyptic warnings and doomsday scenarios in activist discourses and the communications of international organisations, on the other. Research has therefore noted a general lack of emancipatory futures or transformative visions of the future in ecological debates (Rödder and Pavenstädt, 2023).

Current developments complicate this picture. The entry of the social sciences into debates on environmental futures leads to a pluralisation of anticipatory knowledge practices. As studies increasingly focus on politics and society, they also highlight the role of social processes and societal agency in shaping the future (Aykut et al., 2024; Engels et al., 2023). Moreover, the growth and success of climate fiction as a genre has brought (partially) positive visions of the future and complex societal transformations into public debate.

The session examines these developments and their consequences by focusing on (1) the diverse forms of anticipatory knowledge practices and future imaginaries in ecological struggles, (2) the performativity of anticipatory knowledge claims and imaginaries and their capacity to support societal agency, (3) the role and responsibility of (social) scientists engaged in such debates. The aim is to contribute to reflections on emancipatory or 'post-apocalyptic futures' (Cassegård and Thörn, 2018), which combine recognition of the loss and injustice caused by climate disasters and ecological catastrophes with aspirations for transformation and justice.

Session Organizers:
Stefan C. AYKUT, Universität Hamburg, Germany, Nicolas BAYA-LAFFITE, Institute of Sociological Research / Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Institute, Switzerland and Lise CORNILLEAU, Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France
Oral Presentations
Constructing Narratives of the Twin Transition: Digitalization and Sustainability in EU Foresight
Nicolas BAYA-LAFFITE, Institute of Sociological Research / Environmental Governance and Territorial Development Institute, Switzerland
Temporalities of Justice Amongst Loss and Damage – a Sociological Reconfiguration
Cassiopea STAUDACHER, Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies “Futures of Sustainability”, University of Hamburg, Germany; Lea KAMMLER, University of Hamburg, Germany
Anticipating and Deferring. Elements of a Politics of Suspension
Thomas LEMKE, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Futuring Smart Cities and Smart Petroleum Futures: The Melding Digital Smartness of Extraction and Urbanization
Ryan BURNS, University of Washington Bothell, USA; Eliot TRETTER, University of Calgary, Canada
Like Gold, with Yield... and Carbon: The Role of Knowledge and Quantified Expertise in the “Environmental Turn” of the Assetization of Farmland
Lise CORNILLEAU, Université Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France
Anticipatory Knowledge and the Tensions of Anthropocene in Outer Space Research
Ilenia PICARDI, University of Naples Federico II, Italy; Maria Carmela AGODI, University of Naples Federico II, Italy; Marco SERINO, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Reimagining Resilience: Co-Producing Just Social-Ecological Futures in the Southern Sierra Madre, Philippines
Eduardo ROQUINO, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines; Charlene Mae ARKAINA, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
Distributed Papers
Exploring and Developing Societal Agency By Teaching Futures Studies: Experiences and Theoretical Reflections
Christian DAYÉ, Graz University of Technology, Austria; Ella BREITFUSS, Graz University of Technology, Austria; Paula DE PABLO SANZ, Graz University of Technology, Austria; Roman Lukas PRUNČ, Graz University of Technology, Austria
The Anatomy of Biosolutionism. Anticipation, Speculative Futures and the Becoming-Environmental of Economics
Vicky KLUZIK, Germany
Hydrogen and Energy Future(s) in South Tyrol: Sociotechnical Imaginaries between Common Visions and Debated Pathways
Federica VIGANO, University of Bolzano, Italy; Francesca ULERI, Italy; Giada COLEANDRO, UNIBZ, Italy
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