Tropical Futurisms: Making Futures

Tropical Futurisms situates the making of futures in the geo-climatic zone of the tropics with its shared—yet always specific—histories of colonialism(s) and ecological biodiversities. At the same time, this special issue acknowledges the pluralities of tropical cultures and their cosmological insights, technological imaginings, and multispecies vitalities. This second part of the double Special Issue on Tropical Futurisms emphasises creative practices of future-making. It recognises the diverse ways of making futures by positioning them back in tropical material experiences in this time of escalating climate crisis. As with the previous issue on Thinking Futures, this second issue on Making Futures seeks solidarity in the tropics via imagining the future together in plural forms through creative practices. This issue offers insights from theatre performance, architecture, urban planning, street art, arts-nature exhibition, ethnography, photography, activism, film documentary, poetry, translation, and storytelling. It includes works from Tropical Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, Tropical Australia, India, and the Southeast Asia countries of Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. We are interested in the ways these creative works intersect across the pan-tropics, creating new rich and complex forms of future-making.