4160 - Social Theory for Our Grandchildren: Humanity’s Future in Theoretical Perspective

Session Submission Type: Paper Session 100min

Description

While sociologists have always been keenly interested in the future conditions and likely trajectories of humanity, they are perhaps more reluctant "futurologists" than are other social scientists. This session rejects this reticence. What might the social, economic, and political world of our grandchildren look like? How do existing social theories help us make predictions about it, and/or do we need to craft new social theories to understand it? Panelists are invited to take up questions of what is likely to continue and what could - or must - change, in relation to any number of topics (e.g. climate change, genetics, artificial intelligence, war, populism, multiculturalism, capitalism, etc.).

Sub Unit

• Theory Section / Social Theory for Our Grandchildren: Humanity’s Future in Theoretical Perspective

Session Organizers

• Rebecca Elliott, London School of Economics

• Marion Fourcade, University of California - Berkeley

Presider

• Alondra Nelson, Institute for Advanced Study

Individual Presentations

• A Political Genealogy of Meteorological Government - Zeke Baker, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin.

• Cosmonaut in the Post Office: A Sociology of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone - Lindsey A. Freeman, Simon Fraser University

• Max Weber in Outer Space - Albert J. Bergesen, University of Arizona

• Is Sociology Ready for its Copernican Moment? - Jacob Gates Foster, University of California-Los Angeles

Discussant

• Rebecca Elliott, London School of Economics