Conference London November 2017 Creating Radical Futures

From Patricia Gaya, U. Bristol – Center for Critical Action Research

I’m writing because I’d like to share details of a conference that I believe is of great relevance to Action Research, the 2nd International Conference on Anticipation (8-10 November 2017, London), which provides an interdisciplinary meeting ground in which researchers, scholars and practitioners who are seeking to understand anticipation and anticipatory practices can come together to deepen their understanding and create productive new connections.

The overarching aim of the conference and of the emerging field of Anticipation Studies is to create new understandings of how individuals, groups, institutions, systems and cultures use ideas of the future to act in the present. I believe that as action researchers we have MUCH to contribute to these conversations.

Conference themes/questions include: How does the future get made? Who owns and governs the future? How might the future be kept open? How is it colonised? What is the relationship between an idea of the future and action in the present? What are the affective and embodied aspects of anticipation (acting in the present with a view to opening up the future/creating radical futures)?

The conference format will include a diverse range of offerings, including curated sessions, papers, ideas sessions, techniques workshops, and dialogue sessions.

It will be held in London in November of 2017 – I plan to attend, and would love to see you or your friends/colleagues there…

For further details, please see the attached call for papers and visit the conference website (http://anticipation2017.org/).

I’d also appreciate it if you could distribute this invitation widely – the hope is that conference participants will come from as wide a range of disciplines, backgrounds, practices, and practitioner interests as possible.

Warmest regards – and a heartfelt embrace – to you all,
Patricia Gaya