The Trouble with Speculation
Natures, Futures, Politics
Edited by Christine Mortimer and Maria Alejandra Luján Escalante
ISBN
978-1529244236Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressISBN
978-1529244243Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
The Trouble with Speculation
Bringing together contributors from Europe, North America and Australia, this book questions the purpose and outcomes of speculation in practical settings.
In the context of interrelated and complex global challenges, speculation is not just useful but necessary. The chapters in this book present a cross-disciplinary dialogue of people that are developing work in speculation and interrogates its practices and ethical and political charges. Through these discussions, the book explores the potential of speculation in addressing issues such as climate change, urban futures and new political practices.
Christine Mortimer is Deputy Academic Dean at Lancaster University, UK / Beijing Jiaotong University, China.
Maria Alejandra Luján Escalante is Senior Lecturer in Co-Design for Service Design at UAL: London College of Communication, UK.
Introduction – Luke Moffat, Christine Mortimer and Maria Alejandra Lujan Escalante
Part 1: Scaffolding
Foreword – Laura Forlano
1. Speculation with Glitches: Keeping the Future Moving – Shawn Bodden and Jen Ross
2. Investments in the Imaginary: Commercial Drone Speculations and Relation – Anna Jackman and Maximillian Jablonowski
3. Dystopias for Discourse: The Role of the Artist in the Rapidly Reconfiguring City – Clare McCracken
4. New Images of Thought: On Two Kinds of Speculative Realism – Arjen Kleinherenbrink
The Debate
Part 2: More-than-Human Worlds
Foreword – Anne Galloway
5. Speculative Listening: Melting Sea Ice and New Methods of Listening to the Planet – Kaya Barry, Michelle Duffy, Michele Lobo
6. It Matters What Designs Design Designs: Speculations on Multispecies Worlding – Michelle Westerlaken
7. Edible Speculations: Designing Everyday Oracles for Food Futures – Markéta Dolejšová
Part 3: Speculative Ethics
Foreword – James Fathers
8. Beyond Speculation: Using Speculative Methods to Surface Ethics and Positionality in Design Practices and Pedagogy – Melanie Levick-Parkin, Eve Stirling, Maria Hanson, Roger Bateman
9. Touring the Carbon Ruins: Towards an Ethics of Speculative Decarbonisation – Paul Graham Raven, Johannes Stripple
10. Science Fiction, Reconfigured Social Theory and the Anthropocene Age: Exploring and Thinking about Planetary Futures through Fictional Imaginaries – Yannick Rumpala
