Description
The promises of the future – of progress, development and hope – have been powerful dimensions of modern politics, and perhaps most acutely in the context of colonial and post-colonial politics. It is well-understood that civilisational hierarchies were in recent centuries expressed temporally in the North Atlantic – that civilisations were at different stages of development and potentially progressing towards the state of the European vanguard. Such a widespread idea was a powerful ideology in the maintenance and spread of colonial rule. It is with this history and awareness that this panel explores what international studies can contribute to a summit of the future today, through understanding contemporary futurity in its colonial and post-colonial contexts. United by this theme and focus of inquiry, the papers address a range of different topics located in different geographical areas – urban development in India, the politics of cyberspace in Africa, peace processes in Colombia and structures of indebtedness in the Global South. Together they explore how conceptions of the future and of progress impact the political horizons of the (post)colonial present.
