PhD Workshop 21-23 October 2015, Future-Making
21-23 October 2015, Soeterbeeck, NL-Ravenstein
Futures are all around us: we live in futures that others have dreamt about and worked to make happen, and forecasting new futures is becoming increasingly important: What kind of nanotechnologies will develop? Will we be able to engender innovative sustainabilities? How can science and technology be used to manufacture smart cities and mobilities? And how can we, and have we, use(d) the present to know and fabricate futures, and vice versa?
Whether deliberate or not, claims about futures always balance between intervention and re-presentation, between description and performativity, between fact and fantasy. Science and technology play intricate roles in future making: it is on the basis of techno-scientific developments that futures are envisioned, ideas about what the future should look like direct science and engineering, scientific methodologies are used to extrapolate or otherwise work with the present to predict futures, but also to make them happen. Science, Technology & Innovation Studies (STIS) are at once engaged in future-making and in reflecting on the epistemic, methodological and political assumptions involved.
In this workshop we will investigate a variety of ways in which scientific pasts, present times and futures are made to interrelate. Thus, we will examine the knowledge claims on which futures (been) envisaged or predicted, how such future visions are performative, and how we can actively invest(ed) in realizing specific futures? We will also devote time to developing research skills.
Speakers include Maarten Hajer, Harro van Lente, and Bernhard Truffer.
The registration form for this workshop is available online. Please register by 15 August 2015.
The preparation work for this event is estimated at about 40 hours of study. Completion of this workshop is granted with 3 ECTS.
Costs for WTMC members:
– meals 10 EUR /day
Costs for everyone else:
– 695 EUR, including fee, accommodation and meals
