The Politics of the Future? Negotiating Tomorrow’s Uncertainties in Diverse Political Conditions
Principal Investigator: Felix Krawatzek
How is the future perceived and governed in differing political systems? This research tackles this vitally important issue through a technique of discourse analysis which contributes to existing historiography. The project explores the post-9/11 world through a comparison of France, Russia and the US. These countries have responded differently to the challenge the future poses which will be studied via three policy areas (climate change, intergenerational justice, international security).
The research studies political speeches, analyses and interviews through Discourse Network Analysis. This method breaks new ground for academia. It draws on the most recent computational advances to increase our capacity for textual analysis. Shaping the future is also timely for society at large in a present of uncertainties and heated debates about the world of tomorrow.
The project’s primary aim is to recognise how present and past conditions impact on constructions of the future. This approach identifies how current political power structures condition the contested negotiations that establish the picture of the world of tomorrow.