The future has become a problem for the present. Almost every critical issue is now understood
and experienced through the prism of the future since this is the primary focus for the playing
out of crises. Senses of the Future offers a wide-ranging discussion of theories of the future.
It covers the main ideas of the future in modern thought and explores how we should view the
future today in light of a plurality of very different and conflicting visions. The key
contribution of this book is to bring together the different approaches with an account that is
grounded in sociological and philosophical analysis as opposed to visions of the future that
are inspired by extreme visions of catastrophe or approaches that see the future as only the
continuation of the present. Given a revival of apocalyptical visions of the 'end times' and
dystopian views of the future of human societies there is urgent need for a new approach on
how we should imagine the future. The author explores the future as a field of tensions that is
revealed in narratives utopian desires hope imaginaries and social struggles concerning the
potential possibilities of the present: the future does not just arrive it has to be fought
for. This book is an important contribution to a critical sociology of the future. It is both a
work of reconstruction and critique grounded in a historical and philosophical hermeneutics of
the future. Table of Contents Chapter One Introduction: Conflicting Visions of the Future
Contested Visions of the Future Today Return to the Future Outline of the Chapters References
Chapter Two When is the Future? The Problem of Time and the Human Condition Time in the
Physical World: Lessons from Physics Has the Future already Begun? Time and History Time Life
and the Human Condition: Biology Evolution and Culture Conclusion References Chapter Three
Lessons from the Past: What Does the Past Tell Us about the Future? The Future in the Past
Failed Societies and Civilizational Collapse Catastrophes and History Conclusion References
Chapter Four Modernity and the Concept of the Future: Utopia Progress and Prophecy The Future
as Expectation The Future as an Imaginary and the Emergence of Utopianism The Future as
Possibility The Future as Experience Conclusion References Chapter Five Ideas of the Future in
the Twentieth Century: Futurism Modernism Sociology and Political Theory New Political Ideas
of the Future after 1945 Responses to the Future: From Fear of the Future to Futurology
Sociological Theory and the Future Conclusion: The New Sociology of the Future References
Chapter Six Critical Theory and the Future: The Sources of Transcendence The Intellectual
Origins of Critical Theory: A Brief Outline The Idea of the Future in the Critical Theory of
the Early Frankfurt School Habermas and the Communication Paradigm The Responsibility Paradigm
and Cosmopolitanism: Jonas and Apel Critical Cosmopolitanism and the Idea of the Future
Conclusion: Cultural Models and the Future as Possibility References Chapter Seven Conclusion:
In The Shadow of the Future Do We Need a Theory of the Future? Are we already in a New
Historical Era? AI and a Posthuman Future Struggles for the Future References Index
