The concept of the future is re-emerging as an urgent topic on the academic agenda. In this article, we focus on the ‘politics of the future’: the social processes and practices that allow particular imagined futures to become socially performative. Acknowledging that the performativity of such imagined futures is well-understood, we argue that how particular visions come about and why they become performative is underexplained. Drawing on constructivist sociological theory, this article aims to fill (part of) this gap by exploring the question ‘how do imagined futures become socially performative’? In doing so, the article has three aims to (1) identify the leading social–theoretical work on the future; (2) conceptualize the relationship of the imagination of the future with social practices and the performance of reality; (3) provide a theoretical framework explaining how images of the future become performative, using the concepts ‘techniques of futuring’ and ‘dramaturgical regime’.

Solar geoengineering is gaining prominence in climate change debates as an issue worth studying; for some it is even a potential future policy option. We argue here against this increasing normalization of solar geoengineering as a speculative part of the climate policy portfolio. We contend, in particular, that solar geoengineering at planetary scale is not governable in a globally inclusive and just manner within the current international political system. We therefore call upon governments and the United Nations to take immediate and effective political control over the development of solar geoengineering technologies. Specifically, we advocate for an International Non‐Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering and outline the core elements of this proposal. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > International Policy Framework

Under the umbrella of biologically informed disciplines, biomimicry is a design methodology that proponents often assert will lead to a more sustainable future. In realizing that future, it becomes necessary to discern specifically what biomimicry’s “promises” are in relation to sustainable futures, and what is required in order for them to be fulfilled. This paper presents research examining the webpages of the Biomimicry Global Network (BGN) to extract the claims and promises expressed by biomimicry practitioners. These promises are assessed using current literature to determine their presuppositions and requirements. Biomimicry’s promises are expressed in terms of potential for innovation, sustainability, and transformation and appear to depend on perceived relationships between humanity and nature; nature and technology; the underlying value judgements of practitioners. The findings emphasize that in order for the communicated promise of biomimicry to be realized, a particular ethos and respectful engagement with nature must accompany the technological endeavors of the practice.

Environmental politics as we know it cannot deliver. Despite all efforts politics is unable to bend the ecological trends. This book argues this is because environmental politics is captured. This capture doesn’t just express itself in a lobbying or lack of political will, but more profoundly in the capture of its ideas about the future, in the inability to imagine futures meaningfully different from the present. Examining environmental politics as drama reveals how all actors play their particular roles: scientists funnel narrow policy futures through their models; activists adopt politically expedient language; policymakers look for safe, technologically sound win-win solutions. All are captured in a regime of ecological modernization that entertains too narrow a solution space. There is every reason to be concerned about this capture. If environmental politics continues to follow the dominant script of ecological modernization, ever-more speculative technologies will appear in a desperate attempt to safeguard the future. Drawing on discourse and dramaturgical analysis, Captured Futures reveals the mechanisms of this capture, explains its persistence and speculates about geoengineering technologies waiting in the wings. Yet in the third part of the book, discourse and dramaturgical analysis appear as a reason for hope, sketching an alternative perspective on environmental politics. A new, more cultural approach to environmental politics could have more leverage on the societal imagination. In combination with the formulation of new discourses and using alternative ‘dramaturgies of change’ this shows ways to liberate environmental politics.