Possibility and the Temporal Imagination
Abstract How do our temporal frames and orientations to rhythm shape our perception of possibility in the present? How can we build dialogue across temporal difference? In this talk, Keri will discuss how time, timing, rhythm and temporal framing play critical roles defining social problems, structuring solutions, producing injustice and intensifying conflict. Drawing on a series of examples related to climate change and ecological transitions, she will make the case that a ‘temporal imagination’ can offer new routes to understanding and framing complex situations and opening up pathways to mutual engagement and dialogue. She will also explore this issue from a pedagogical perspective – what might it take to foster a temporal imagination both in our research and in our communities.
Keri Facer
Keri Facer is Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol, UK where she leads the British Academy ‘Times of a Just Transition’ Programme and is Co-investigator on the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures. Her research explores how to foster the imaginative and affective capabilities needed to face disruptive technological and environmental change. Keri was previously Zennström Professor in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University, expert advisory group member of UNESCO’s Futures of Education Commission and Research Director at Futurelab. She is currently working with Black Mountains college to set up a new university dedicated to the challenge of living in a warming world as well as collaborating with the Joseph Rowntree foundation to explore how to establish an infrastructure of the imagination in schools and communities.