Barbara Adam
Talk
Future Matters: Action, Knowledge, Ethics
Summary
Social lives are lived prospectively with intent and visions of what will, could, and should be. Yet social futurity is not merely hoped for or anticipated: it is enacted continuously in everyday and institutional practices. To account for this central feature of plans and actions poses major challenges for evidence-based knowledge practices, where the future is assumed to be not-yet and therefore not factual.
This talk reflects on the summer school’s theme of uncertainty and the future by examining anomalies that arise for institutional practices that explicitly pursue responsible future making. It explores openings for change and encourages participants to engage with the challenges that arise in their own spheres of influence.
Speaker Bio
Barbara Adam is Emerita Professor at Cardiff University. The social temporal has been the primary intellectual project of her academic career, leading to six research monographs, numerous edited books and journals, and a large number of articles.
Because her social theory of time and futures cuts across disciplines, her work is taught across the arts, humanities, social sciences, and environmental sciences. She is also the founding editor of the international journal Time & Society.
References
- Adam, B. and Groves, C. (2007). Future Matters: Action, Knowledge, Ethics. Leiden: Brill.