CONTESTED FUTURES by Nik Brown, Brian Rappert, Andrew Webster (Editor) ( 9780754612636 )

Item Details

Title:

CONTESTED FUTURES
A SOCIOLOGY OF PROSPECTIVE TECHNO-SCIENCE

By:

Nik Brown, Brian Rappert, Andrew Webster (Editor)

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£135.00

Our price:

£121.50

Discount:

10% off

You save:

£13.50

ISBN 10:

0754612635

ISBN 13:

9780754612636

Availability:

Reprinting. This item may be subject to delays or cancellation.

Delivery rates

Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Pub. date:

23 November, 2000

Pages:

292

Description:

This text is about what the future should or might look like and turns the analytical gaze towards the phenomenon of future orientation itself. The contributors examine how the future as a temporal abstraction is constructed and managed, by whom and under what conditions.

Synopsis:

In a unique volume, Contested Futures brings together a group of scholars to examine the relationships between social action and the future. Rather than speculating upon what the future might bring, the volume interrogates the metaphors and practices through which the future is mobilized as an object of present day action and agency. The book shifts the analytical gaze from looking into the future to looking at the future as a sociological phenomenon in its own right. Futures are thus contested in as much as they register differences of interest, time frame or organizational and political form. Contestation is also evident in the ascendancy of certain discourses, languages and metaphors which foreclose some futures whilst facilitating others. But futures are far from being simply linguistic abstractions, and in fact can often be seen to harden into material entrenchment as expectations become scripted into 'path dependency' and 'lock in'. Contested Futures is an invaluable analysis for both academics and policy actors seeking a better understanding of the ubiquity of futures-discourse in the context of today's uncertainties.

Illustrations:

index

Publication:

Imprint:

Ashgate Publishing Limited

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

A WEB OF PREVENTION