Description

***Attendance is free, but registration is required (except for “Context and Nuance” students attending only the evening session).***

The impossibility of predicting with absolute certainty what the planet will look like in 2030, 2050, 2100, and beyond means that policymakers have to resort to a methodology known as “scenario planning”, which uses speculation to chart various possible courses of action within an uncertain future. This is not unlike what happens in literature and other artforms that provide us with imaginative and compelling visions of possible futures and explore the consequences of different actions and decisions.

This future orientation is generally associated with science fiction and speculative fiction, genres that often rely on exaggeration and hyperbole to expose the dangers of the present moment. However, literary realism can also engage with uncertain futurity, e.g. by describing characters’ anxieties or hopes as they struggle with personal and collective crises. Novels, short stories, and films can help us expand our thinking, develop our imagination, challenge our assumptions about the future, and create a sense of urgency around the need to act.

This symposium will ponder the contribution that literature and other artistic practices can make to “futures literacy”, an essential skill for individuals, organizations, and societies that seek to navigate a rapidly changing world and to create desirable futures for themselves and others. It will offer a platform to engage in interdisciplinary conversations about how the imagination can affect our perception of the environmental future, and how we can use artistic practices to influence policy and public opinion.

For more information, including the programme, abstracts, and bios, see https://www.ugent.be/lw/en/about-us/francqui#ClosingSymposium:ImaginingEnvironmentalFutures.