Often science fiction depicts the climate future as unlivable, or as barely survivable only through an intensification of “capitalist realism” – everything is for sale, only the rich have access to technologies sufficient for minimal comfort, and Earth ecologies are in continual free-fall or already destroyed in service of profit. In this conversation, we discuss science fictional imaginings of livable collective futures. We put two recent texts (Ruthanna Emrys’s A Half-Built Garden and M.E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhabi’s Everything for Everyone) in conversation with an older non-dystopian imaginary (“P.M”’s bolo’bolo).
Alexis Shotwell is theory and science fiction fan, functional potter, and she bike rides in all weather. Alexis has been part of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton since 2012 and cross-appointed to Philosophy and the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies. Kilian Jörg is a philosopher and artist based in Vienna and Berlin whose research focuses on ecological epistemology and the intersection of art and philosophy.
Actions
- Read widely and fully.
- Engage in collaborative projects (like book clubs or reading groups) that bring together diverse perspectives.
- Consider participating in imaginative exercises like writing prompts or drawing/art prompts.
- Engage in activities that work to imagine alternative futures (Buy Nothing Groups, Clothing/Item Swaps, Repair Cafes).
Resource List
- A Half-Built Garden, Ruthanna Emrys
- Everything For Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072, M. E. O’Brien and Eman Abdelhadi
- Bolo’Bolo, Hans Widmer
- Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times, Alexis Shotwell
- Knowing Otherwise: Race, Gender, and Implicit Understanding, Alexis Shotwell
- Ecological Reasonings, Killian Jorg
- Toxicity Temple: An Artistic and Philosophical Adventure into the Toxicity of Now, Killian Jorg
- Not Too Late, Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua; Specifically: “Looking back from the future: 2023 from 2073” by Denali sai nalamalapu
- Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler
- Tentacle, Rita Indiana
- The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanely Robinson
- Letters from the Future: How New Brunswickers Confronted Climate Change and Redefined Progress, Edited by Daniel Tubb, Abram Lutes, Susan O’Donnell
- Emergent Strategy: Shaping Climate Changing Worlds, adrienne maree brown
- Jörg, K. Messy utopianism and the question of war: What does “staying with the trouble” mean in relation to war? WLS 16, 18–28 (2024).
- Shotwell, A. Building Complicity with Another World. Parallax 29, 364–385 (2023).
- Shotwell, A. Survival Will Always Be Insufficient, but It’s a Good Place to Start. The Arrow (2020).
- Neel, P. A. & Chavez, N. Forest and Factory: The Science and the Fiction of Communism. Endnotes.
- https://www.kilianj.org/, Killian’s Website. A resource for his books and performance art.