Anthropologies and Futures ─ Researching Emerging and Uncertain Worlds

Anthropology has a critical, practical role to play in contemporary debates about futures. This game-changing new book presents new ways of conceptualising how to engage with a future-oriented research agenda, demonstrating how anthropologists can approach futures both theoretically and practically, and introducing a set of innovative research methods to tackle this field of research.

Anthropology and Futures brings together a group of leading scholars from across the world, including Sarah Pink, Rayna Rapp, Faye Ginsburg and Paul Stoller. Firmly grounded in ethnographic fieldwork experience, the book's fifteen chapters range from long-term longitudinal ethnographies among people living with HIV/AIDS in the UK and people with disabilities in North America, to participatory research with young Muslim women in Copenhagen, future-makers in Barcelona, the design of workspaces in Melbourne and speculative ethnographies among transient and mobile communities living in Antarctica.

Taking a strong interdisciplinary approach, the authors respond to growing interest in the topic of futures in anthropology and beyond. Challenges of uncertainty and increased emphasis on the practical 'impact' of research which helps to inform governance and planning are calling out for this ground-breaking text which will trigger a more engaged, interventional and applied anthropology. Essential reading for students and researchers in anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, design and research methods.

Juan Francisco Salazar is Associate Professor in Media and Cultural Studies at Western Sydney University, Australia

Sarah Pink is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT University, Australia

Andrew Irving is Director of the Granada Centre of Visual Anthropology at the University of Manchester, UK

Johannes Sjoberg is Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Manchester, UK