What Future for the Sociology of Futures? Visions, Concepts and Methods

Susan  Halford; Dale Southerton

doi:10.1177/00380385231157586

What Future for the Sociology of Futures? Visions, Concepts and Methods

Susan Halford, Dale Southerton^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Questions about the future, and futurelessness, have attracted wide-ranging attention in recent years. Our article explores what Sociology offers. We reflect on the apparent contradiction that the future was bracketed-off from the discipline in its early history, yet also offers rich theoretical, methodological and empirical resources for futures research. We demonstrate this through an analysis of the contributions to this Special Issue, each of which draws on explicitly Sociological theories and methods to consider futures in a range of fields. Finally, we explore further developments necessary for a Sociology of the Future. We argue that Sociology can and should be more directly involved in claiming what futures might be, should be and in materialising these claims. This means moving beyond Sociology – as a distinct set of resources – towards expansive engagement with other future-making actors. This may challenge and change Sociology but may also be key to its future.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	263-278
Number of pages	16
Journal	Sociology
Volume	57
Issue number	2
Early online date	25 Apr 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385231157586
Publication status	Published - Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: we are grateful to the ESRC for funding this research ES/W002639/1.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

futures, futures in-the-making, future-making practices, Sociology.

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10.1177/00380385231157586Licence: CC BY

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CenSoF: ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
Halford, S., Southerton, D., Manchester, H., Evans, D. M., Watson, D. L., Anderson, B., Cater, K. F., Carver, N., Clarke, P. H., Dermott, E., Facer, K., Hauert, S., Liu, W., Liveley, G., McQuillan, D., O'Kane, A. A., Owen, R., Parker, M., Preist, C. W., Schien, D., Sriprakash, A., Milivojevic, S., Hussain, R., Gutierrez Lopez, M., Cheilan, L., Thomas, L. M., Van Isacker, T., Valladares Celis, C., Atkins, E., Knight, E. W., Pykett, J., Pitts, H., Williamson, B., Lagedamont, M., Dowse, M., Brand, J. F., James, R., Okafo, D., Horsley, N., Jansen, A. H., Stevenson, T. P., Hill, J. M., Abu-Aisheh, R., Bo, H., Hemming, R., Huang, L. Z. & Ward, K. J.
1/05/22 → 30/04/27
Project: Research, Parent

Cite this

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title = "What Future for the Sociology of Futures? Visions, Concepts and Methods",

abstract = "Questions about the future, and futurelessness, have attracted wide-ranging attention in recent years. Our article explores what Sociology offers. We reflect on the apparent contradiction that the future was bracketed-off from the discipline in its early history, yet also offers rich theoretical, methodological and empirical resources for futures research. We demonstrate this through an analysis of the contributions to this Special Issue, each of which draws on explicitly Sociological theories and methods to consider futures in a range of fields. Finally, we explore further developments necessary for a Sociology of the Future. We argue that Sociology can and should be more directly involved in claiming what futures might be, should be and in materialising these claims. This means moving beyond Sociology – as a distinct set of resources – towards expansive engagement with other future-making actors. This may challenge and change Sociology but may also be key to its future.",

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What Future for the Sociology of Futures? Visions, Concepts and Methods

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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Projects

CenSoF: ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures

Cite this