[News] RGS-IBG 2024 CfP: Future techniques, protagonists and spaces. A critical reflection on geographical speculation

[Anke Schwarz]

Liebe Fem-Geos,

mit dem üblichen *sorry for cross-posting* hier ein CfP von Frank Müller 
und mir zur diesjährigen RGS-IBG in London. Über Beiträge aus dieser 
Runde freuen wir uns sehr! Deadline 12.02.2024, bei Fragen meldet Euch 
gerne.

Beste Grüße,
Anke


---
*Future techniques, protagonists and spaces: A critical reflection on 
geographical speculation*

RGS-IBG 2024, London
Session organisers: Frank Müller (independent researcher) and Anke 
Schwarz (Heidelberg University)

Drawing inspiration from feminist geographical thought and its 
commitment to envisioning an alternative future (MacLeavy et al. 2021: 
1573), this session delves into speculative geographies and geographical 
speculation. This creative exercise allows us to anchor abstract 
concepts of “the future” in diverse experiences and emotional 
connections to the potential transformations of the (life)worlds we 
inhabit. Speculation involves navigating the risks and aspirations 
associated with future developments, employing diverse methodologies to 
make well-informed conjectures about what could (and should) unfold. We 
aim to explore speculation both as a “mode of attention” and a “practice 
of worlding” (Haraway 2016: 230). While speculation has garnered 
attention across various disciplines, influencing realities in 
economics, physics (Stengers 2005), and philosophy (Jameson 2007, 
Savransky et al. 2018), it is also inherently geographical. This is 
because it demands thoughtful consideration of the connections between 
“thinking and the earthly” (Williams and Keating 2022: 13) when 
envisioning tangible utopias capable of sustaining a livable life for 
all. This imperative prompts us to investigate the boundaries and 
intersections of seemingly distinct approaches to future spaces, 
encompassing both declaredly improbable and fictive scenarios, as well 
as more probable, probabilistic, and factual ones. This quest for 
radical otherness is already embedded in queer worldings (Muñoz 2019) 
and challenging the conventional boundaries of geography as a discipline 
(Kinkaid 2023).

How are futures made present through speculative techniques? Speculative 
techniques combine fictional, performative, and positivistic utterances 
that co-produce concrete abstractions of possible and (un)desirable 
futures. This session focuses on the techniques of extrapolation, 
narration, and performance, exploring their overlapping relevance for 
social and political geographies.

Who are the protagonists involved in imagining, performing, and 
narrating futures? Who has the right to shape collective futures, and 
who does not, is excluded from doing so? We are interested in individual 
biographies and collective genealogies of actors becoming involved in 
speculation – SF authors, planners, Think Tanks, governmental agencies, 
and councils, etc.

Lastly, we are interested in mapping the study objects and spaces of 
speculative techniques: In what kinds of environments, technologies, 
things, and territories do protagonists of speculation ground their 
practice?

We welcome short papers and creative interventions on topics including, 
but not limited to:

-    Different truth claims and stances towards “realisms”: forecasting, 
imagining, modelling and the hierarchies between different speculative 
techniques;
-    Critical perspectives on modelling, scenario planning, and other 
techniques of future-thinking
-    Various study objects: technologies, arts, models, landscapes, 
cityspaces
-    (Future) geographies of difference: Feminist and queer futurities 
and worldings, territorial subjectivities and subject formation in 
processes of geographical future-making
-    Futures’ political colour and the extent to that future-thinking is 
an emancipatory, progressive, leftist project; alt-right future 
thinking, its protagonists, spaces, and strategies to contest it;
-    Geographies of futures through the lens of science/speculative 
fiction and other narrative techniques
-    Emotional and affective geographies of speculation

We are planning a hybrid session with 12-15 minutes for each 
presentation plus a discussion with an invited guest (tba). Please send 
a title, 200-word abstract and your contact details to both 
anke.schwarz at uni-heidelberg.de and frank.mueller at fu-berlin.de 
by*February 12, 2024.*

Looking forward to your contributions! If you have any questions, get in 
touch.

Best wishes,
Frank and Anke

*References*
Haraway, D (2016) Staying with the trouble. Making kin in the 
Chtulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.
Jameson, F (2007) Archeologies of the future. The desire called utopia 
and other science fictions. London: Verso.
Kinkaid, E (2023): Whose geography, whose future? Queering geography’s 
disciplinary reproduction. Dialogues in Human Geography, online first, 
https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206221144839.
MacLeavy J, Fannin M and Larner W (2021) Feminism and futurity: 
geographies of resistance, resilience and reworking. Progress in Human 
Geography 45(6): 1558–1579.
Muñoz, JE (2019) Cruising utopia. The then and there of queer futurity. 
New York: New York University Press.
Savransky, M, Wilkie, A, and Rosengarten, M (2017). The lure of possible 
futures: On speculative research. In A. Wilkie, M. Savransky, and M. 
Rosengarten (eds.) Speculative research: The lure of possible futures. 
London: Routledge, 1-18.
Williams, N, and Keating, T (2022). From abstract thinking to thinking 
abstractions: Introducing Speculative Geographies. In: Williams, N., 
Keating, T. (eds.) Speculative Geographies. Palgrave Macmillan: 
Singapore. Stengers, I. (2005). Introductory notes on an ecology of 
practices. Cultural Studies Review, 11(1), 183–196.
Suvin D (1979 [2016]) Metamorphoses of Science Fiction. Oxford et al.: 
Peter Lang.

-- 
Dr. Anke Schwarz (she/her)
Vertretungsprofessur für Humangeographie

Universität Heidelberg
Geographisches Institut
Berliner Str. 48
69120 Heidelberg

anke.schwarz at uni-heidelberg.de
https://www.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/human/
https://ankeschwarz.net/

Latest publication:
Schwarz A and Streule M (2024): Territorial subjectivities. The missing link between political subjectivity and territorialization. Progress in Human Geography, online first,https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325241228600
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