Bracketing the Future: Rethinking Hope and Praxis in Climate Activism

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Confronting Crisis

Abstract

This paper argues that understanding engagement with the climate crisis requires rethinking conventional sociological assumptions—such as the notion that social movements are inherently goal-oriented and that hope is intrinsically positive. These assumptions are rooted in the modern time regime, which posits a future governed by progress and human agency. Instead, I propose that we begin with the unique experiences of disorientation and the processes of reorientation that emerge in response to crisis.
Postapocalyptic sentiments—characterized by beliefs in an unavoidable or already—present catastrophe—are increasingly common among climate activists. Yet, despite these bleak narratives, many groups persist in focusing on mitigation strategies. I argue that the modern ideal of hope is itself part of the crisis experience, serving not as a clear motivator but as a challenge to be managed.
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with climate resistance campaigns in the UK, US, and Germany conducted between 2023 and 2025, I find that activists manage the crisis through temporal, spatial, and moral reorientation, which together enable a “bracketing of the future.” Morally, they cultivate identities centered on “doing something against the climate crisis,” which aligns with the campaigns’ declarative focus. Spatially, they reaffirm an alternative reality of crisis and enable meaningful, routine practices within that reality (e.g., making costumes, cooking, flyering). Temporally, they shift their focus from long-term outcomes to everyday praxis. The noted tension between postapocalyptic sentiments and goal orientation is managed through this shift to praxis, in which future-directed goals now serve the moral background of the actions.
The findings have broader implications for the field: They urge us to recognize how people shift between moral, temporal, and spatial orientations when confronting problems and to evaluate the relevance of key sociological assumptions that have become anachronistic for understanding contemporary challenges.

Author

• Daphne Katharina Fietz, Yale University