Fixing Futures a Science and Technology Studies Lecture Series
organized by the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, Institute of Sociology, Institute of Human Geography and the Lab for Studies of Science and Technology (LaSST) at Goethe-University Frankfurt
Summer Term 2022, | Wed. 6-8 pm (ct)
The future is not something that is yet to come. It’s rather the cumulative effect of various practices that take place in the present. Whereas planning, projecting and predicting have been widely recognised as established future-making practices in the social sciences, recently there has been a growing interest in socio-technical arrangements that seek to anticipate more contingent futures. Such socio-technical arrangements aim to „fix futures” in the sense that they try to simultaneously provide stability and recognise the need for repair in the context of various crises.
This joint lecture series of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology, the Institute of Sociology, the Institute of Human Geography, and the Lab for Studies of Science and Technology (LaSST) brings together renowned anthropologists, human geographers and sociologists to differently respond to the claim that the contemporary moment is charcterised by a distinct future-orientation. From environmental governance to demilitarisation, the lectures will consider which futures are being fixed, the particular technologies and techniques involved in these future-making processes, and the political possibilities they open up.
Program:
20 APR | Christopher Kelty (University of California, Los Angeles)
Fixing the Future in Los Angeles or, Why Johnny Can’t Problematize
11 MAY | Andrew Barry & Evelina Gambino (University College London)
The Labour of Capitalisation
22 JUN | Andrea Ballestero (University of Southern California)
Aquifers and Ethnography at the Edge of a Concept
13 JUL | Lucy Suchman (Lancaster University)
Demilitarisation, open worlds, and reparative futures
Attendance possible both at Goethe-University, Campus Westend, Seminarhouse, SH 2.105 and online!
Please register via ka-hiwis@em.uni-frankfurt.de