Imagined futures in sustainability transitions: Towards diverse future-making

Abstract

The study of addressing socio-environmental challenges through sustainability transitions inherently considers the future in various ways, although these considerations are often only implicit. In this essay, we argue that it is crucial to engage more explicitly in understanding how imagined futures are enacted and comprehended within research on sustainability transitions. This endeavour is necessary to navigate both the uncertainty and complexity of the future and to avoid perpetuating cognitive path dependencies and unsustainable modes of production and consumption that uphold existing injustices. Our paper discusses characteristics of futures and future-making that are relevant to transition studies. Given the spatial contingency of futures, the social construction of time, and the tendency to reproduce incumbent futures in transitions research, we outline contours of diverse futures through which we can not only analyse but actively engage in diverse future-making. Finally, we discuss the limitations of our approach for the study and community of sustainability transitions. • Aims to provide a reflexive approach to the future in sustainability transitions research. • Provides different characteristics of futures in sustainability transitions research. • Introduces an approach of diverse futures.