289 - Theory Section Invited Session. Future-Making in Sociological Theory

Session Submission Type: Paper Session

Abstract

Although sociologists rarely study how people orient towards their futures, the coordination of action depends on shared rhythms, tempos, and modes of anticipation. In every social institution, actors' anticipations of the future infuse their activity in the present.This panel brings together scholars who ask how to research and theorize the ways in which actors coordinate action in relation to a future that they cannot completely foretell; how they develop a shared sense of rhythm and tempo; what happens when their intuitive anticipations about the future are in discord; and other puzzles regarding the construction of futures.

Sub Unit

• Section Invited

Session Organizer

• Iddo Tavory, New School for Social Research

Presiders

• Iddo Tavory, New School for Social Research

• Nina Eliasoph, University of Southern California

Individual Presentations

• Equipment and Future-Coordination - Nina Eliasoph, University of Southern California; Iddo Tavory, New School for Social Research

• The Environmental Apocalypse and Social Constructions of the Future - John R. Hall, University of California-Davis

• Future in Contention: Projecting Sustainability in the Rio+20 Debates - Ann Mische, University of Notre Dame; Leslie MacColman, University of Notre Dame

• How Do Futures Unfold? - Benjamin Harrison Snyder, Victoria University of Wellington

Discussant

• Kathleen M. Blee, University of Pittsburgh