The Death of the Future: Temporality and Political Activism in an Age of Crisis

The global financial crisis, the increased visibility of climate change, the rise of the global far right and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic have in many senses led to a crisis of hope for progressive activists. Specifically, this project will study environmental or nuclear disarmament activists as those who seek to address existential threat. As Frederic Jameson wrote on the rise of neoliberalism and postmodernity, there has been an observable 'waning of collective hope in a particularly conservative market climate' (Jameson, 1998: 60). The connected failure of the global financial system in 2008, and the resultant austerity and continued economic conservatism of politicians, has created an even more dour situation. As Berardi pessimistically claims, 'political hope is dead. Forever.' (Berardi, 2017: 39). The coronavirus pandemic, with its continued danger and impact upon social life, can in many ways have been observed to have compounded this secular decline in hope as our understanding of what the future even could be is increasingly uncertain. In this context, this project aims to understand how this loss of hope has affected political campaigns and the individuals involved in them, especially since the pandemic has changed how political campaigns can operate and provided a new set of issues over which to campaign. It is therefore necessary to ask:

1) In the context of continued crises and setbacks, how have attitudes towards the future, alongside the past and present, changed for political activists and what are the ramifications of this in terms of methods and views?
2) How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted visions of the future as well as the terrain on which campaigns to realise these are carried out?
3) Given the social nature of political campaigning, does involvement with political activism affect attitudes towards the future? Does this vary based on the type of campaign?

An ethnographic approach is proposed to comprehensively study the changing dynamics within campaigns. The philosophical and social theories on the decline of hope have neglected the specific in favour of broad pronouncements; thus, an ethnographic approach is required. Due to the nature of political organising during the coronavirus pandemic, this will also necessarily include an element of digital ethnography as increasingly meetings and events are moved online. Social media analysis will be especially useful, both due to this pandemic move to online campaigns and due to previous ethnographic use of social media and protests. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament provides a key site for research as I am already involved in this campaign while it also combines a range of generations and perspectives. Moreover, both anti-nuclear and environmental activists campaign on issues of existential threat, creating a relationship between this urgency and the seeming complacence of policymakers and the public, making them fruitful groups for this project. The CND also campaigns on environmental issues, and I hope to leverage these connections to provide opportunities to study environmental campaigns, such as Extinction Rebellion, for comparison and contrast.

Berardi, F. (2017). Futurability: The Age of Impotence and the Horizon of Possibility. London; New York: Verso.
Jameson, F. (1998). The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings on the Postmodern, 1983-1998. London; New York: Verso.