We live in times of multiple declared endings. These range from endings at a planetary scale with climate collapse, to endings of global governance and security regimes, to more mundane endings of technologies, societal infrastructures, and knowledge practices attached to them. Endings are formations that declare a boundary between what/who is considered to be belonging to a future, and what/who does not. They involve normative considerations of what is effective or timely, vs what can be deferred, ignored, neglected, or unaddressed. Endings therefore express power relations, and lived experiences of change that involve care, affect, labor, and contestation. In this interdisciplinary panel we explore the cultural production and experiences of endings as multifaceted phenomena that are always part of making futures. Panelists share examples and perspectives from their ongoing research on endings to consider how endings configure spaces for political reimagining, power relations, and difference in technological, scientific or organisational lifeworlds. It also aims to open a dialog among participants regarding the chrononormativity of scholarship on futures in terms of how we engage or bracket endings from view, and the political implications of these acts.

Panellists:

Marisa Cohn, Associate Professor, Technologies in Practice, IT University of Copenhagen

Anders Ekström, Global Horizons Senior Fellow, SCAS. Professor of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University

Christina Garsten, Principal and Permanent Fellow, SCAS. Professor of Social Anthropology, Uppsala University. Professor of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University

Julia Velkova, Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, SCAS. Professor of Media and Culture, Linköping University. Research Affiliate, Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara

This is an event of the Global Horizons Fellowship Programme.