KEMI 2145A - Making the future

Type d'enseignement : Seminar

Semester : Spring 2017-2018

Number of hours : 12

Language of tuition : English

Pre-requisite

aucun

Course Description

This class takes an intellectual history approach to the problem of the future from the Cold War era on, and examines the links between futures, prediction, technological innovation, human agency and responsibility. By examining futures critically, we gain an insight into the many very different ways of thinking the future in the contemporary, from a rational problem of management and decision making, to a utopian problem of imagining transformations and change in world developments, to core notions of human ethics and responsibility for future generations. By contrasting these different currents, we gain insights into the way that the idea of the future is a profound reflection on human beings and politics and what we can, should, or should not do. As this is a master class, it seeks to anchor the concept of the future in wide range of theoretical perspectives from sociology to history and political theory.

Teachers

ANDERSSON, Jenny (Research director CNRS, CEE - Sciences Po)

Pedagogical format

12 hours, 6 sessions. Active seminar format, students are expected to arrive having read and worked on readings and prepared to discuss in class. Textual readings will be combined with original sources and visual materials.

Course validation

Reading note : On one of historical works in the syllabus Group work : students will work collectively and make a small research assignment

Workload

About 40 pages of reading material for each session.

Required reading

Andersson, The future of the world. Futurology, futurists and the struggle for the post Cold War world. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Additional required reading

To be confirmed at the beginning of class. Pages will be precised.