Geographies of expectations: Towards a spatial politics of promissory futures

Futures matter because they actively shape socio-technological and economic development in the present. This article advances a geographical perspective on expectations by conceptualising them as spatial-political projects. Rather than treating expectations as generic or placeless projections of the future, the article shows how their credibility, circulation, and effects are conditioned by territorial contexts, relational positioning, and uneven power structures across space. To develop this argument, the article introduces the notion of geographies of expectations (GoE) and proposes four analytical vantage points: (1) the territorial embeddedness of expectations; (2) the uneven distribution of promissory power; (3) the circulation and translation of expectations across scales; and (4) the role of expectations in structuring territorial competition and collaboration across clusters, global production, and geopolitical arenas. By foregrounding these spatial mechanisms, the article contributes to human geography and related fields by showing that futures are not abstract temporal horizons but geographically uneven processes that structure development pathways and power relations. Taking the GoE seriously reveals how seemingly universal futures are in fact situated, relational, contested, and deeply political.