Futures Anthropology, Foresight and the Polycrisis - a public lecture from Professor Sarah Pink, Monash University

Please note: This lecture will be available online and in person.

To join the lecture online, please visit https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZWE2ZDVhNDAtNzhiNy00OGU4LTlhZjMtNDNkNzVlZmMyZTY5%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22b2e47f30-cd7d-4a4e-a5da-b18cf1a4151b%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22c5364389-fee3-42c3-9997-f8deba0b08e5%22%7d

Futures Anthropology, Foresight and the Polycrisis

It is increasingly proclaimed that the world is in a polycrisis, a term and set of assumptions which have become a moniker for our times; a moment where multiple crises converge, requiring urgent attention and a future-focused solution. For influential organisations the polycrisis concept makes problems of uncertainty accessible to foresight-informed solutions. Yet foresight frames frequently foreclose the kinds of futures knowledge delivered and sustain a consultancy-led futures industry. Conversely anthropological approaches to polycrisis contest its ontology, the problem-solution narrative it invokes, and the scales at which it operates and futures anthropological foresight invoke diverse futures knowledges. I invite colleagues to join me to consider how the engaged scholarship of futures anthropology might productively participate in shaping decision-making for possible futures.

Sarah Pink (FASSA, PhD, PhD h.c.x2) is Laureate Professor and Director of the Emerging Technologies Lab and FUTURES Hub at Monash University. Sarah is an award winning futures anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. Her recent publications include Emerging Technologies / Life at the Edge of the Future (2023) and co-authored Design Ethnography (2022) and Can We Trust Technology? (2025), and her documentaries Digital Energy Futures (2022) and Air Futures (2024).

This lecture is hosted by the University of Bristol's School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies and the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures.  

The support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is gratefully acknowledged.