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

全球金融危机、气候变化能见度的提高、全球极右翼势力的崛起，以及最近的冠状病毒大流行，在许多意义上给进步活动家带来了希望危机。具体地说，这个项目将把环境或核裁军活动家作为那些寻求解决生存威胁的人来研究。正如弗雷德里克·詹姆逊关于新自由主义和后现代主义的兴起所写的那样，在一个特别保守的市场环境中，可以观察到集体希望的减弱(詹姆逊，1998：60)。2008年全球金融体系的连带失败，以及随之而来的政治家们的紧缩和持续的经济保守主义，造成了更加严峻的局面。正如贝拉尔迪悲观地宣称的那样，“政治希望已经永远破灭。”(贝拉尔迪，2017：39)冠状病毒大流行及其对社会生活的持续危险和影响，可以在许多方面加剧这种希望的长期下降，因为我们对未来的了解甚至越来越不确定。在这方面，该项目旨在了解这种希望的丧失如何影响政治竞选活动和参与其中的个人，特别是因为大流行病改变了政治竞选活动的运作方式，并提供了一系列新的竞选问题。因此，有必要问一问：1)在持续的危机和挫折的背景下，政治活动人士对未来的态度以及过去和现在的态度发生了怎样的变化，这在方法和观点方面产生了什么影响？2)冠状病毒大流行如何影响了对未来的愿景，以及实现这些愿景的领域？3)鉴于政治竞选的社会性质，参与政治活动是否会影响对未来的态度？这是否会因运动类型的不同而有所不同？本文提出了一种人种学方法来全面研究运动中的变化动态。关于希望的衰落的哲学和社会理论忽视了具体的，而倾向于广泛的声明；因此，需要一种民族志方法。由于冠状病毒大流行期间政治组织的性质，随着会议和活动越来越多地转移到网上，这也必然包括数字人种学的元素。社交媒体分析将特别有用，这既是因为这场流行病转向了在线运动，也是因为之前社交媒体和抗议活动的人种学使用。核裁军运动提供了一个关键的研究场所，因为我已经参与了这场运动，同时它还结合了几代人和不同的观点。此外，反核和环保活动人士都在事关生死存亡的问题上开展运动，在这种紧迫性与政策制定者和公众似乎的自满之间建立了一种关系，使他们成为这一项目的富有成效的群体。CND还开展关于环境问题的运动，我希望利用这些联系提供机会来研究环境运动，如灭绝起义，以进行比较和对比。可未来性：阳萎时代和可能性的地平线。伦敦；纽约：Verso.Jameson，F.(1998)。《文化转向：后现代文选，1983-1998》。伦敦；纽约：Verso。

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.