Representations of the future and Critical Futures Studies

Abstract

The seminar introduces the interdisciplinary field of Critical Future Studies (CFS).
CFS investigates the scope and constraints within public culture for imagining and debating different potential futures. It interrogates imagined futures founded upon values and assumptions from the past and present, as well as those representing a departure from current social trajectories. CFS draws on perspectives from various disciplines including sociology, political studies, intellectual history, cultural history, media and cultural studies, utopian studies, science and technology studies, and philosophy. It also engages with discourses and ideas from the natural sciences (including popular science), computing and economics. CFS aims to contribute constructively to vigorous and imaginative public debate about the future – a futural public sphere – and to challenge a prevalent contemporary cynicism about our capacity to imagine alternative futures while trapped in a parlous present.
To that extent, CFS is proposed as a programme of engaged and open-ended social critique, not as a solely academic endeavour.

Fotografia ufficiale @Unitn by Matteo Festi (Ufficio stampa e Relazioni esterne, realizzata presso SOI durante la kick-off week della ECIU Challenge Engaging with the Futures ed. 2026.