Talk, Ties, and Social Times: Unpacking the Duality of Networks and Futures

How is talk about what will, could, and should happen in the future shaped by networks of actors engaged in these conversations? And how do conversations about imagined futures reshape social relations? This essay considers the roots of my current research on “the duality of networks and futures” in seminars and conversations with Harrison White at Columbia in the 1990s. First, I recount generative exchanges with White on language, interaction, and publics, focusing on how “social times” are developed through switches between “network-domains”. Second, I describe how these ideas inform my current work on the construction of futures in public interest scenario projects, as examples of intentional and focused “sites of hyperprojectivity”. As a historical example, I explore intensive debates about imagined futures in the Kenya at the Crossroads project in 1998–2000. Finally, I share some preliminary mappings of transnational networks of public interest scenario projects, based on an original dataset of 230+ multi-stakeholder foresight exercises conducted worldwide since the 1990s. This analysis attempts to channel White’s theoretical and methodological insights by formalizing the link between cultural and relational processes at a larger scale.