Desired images, regulating figures, constructed imaginaries: The future as an apriority for society to be possible

Abstract

This article deals with the future as a crucial element for the webbing of our individual and social life. In accordance with Simmel’s reflections on the apriorities for the very possibility of society, the authors maintain that the webbing of society as we know it would not be possible without its members imagining at least some kind of future. To illustrate the importance of the future for webbing any kind of social relationship, and in order to analyse the possibilities of creating different imaginaries of the future, the authors present a case study of 60 autobiographic interviews of men and women from different class contexts collected in Germany and Spain. The authors look for what they call the images, figures and imaginaries of the future – images as the concrete objects, moments or relationships that are expected, feared, or hoped for in the future, figures as the archetypes that give meaning, inform and shape the contours of our future imaginations, and imaginaries as the webbing together of the figures and images in a narration in the future tense of our own life story, relating this imaginary to other cultural practices. The results of this research show how deep the certainty of a future, and the concrete imaginaries of the future to come, mould and shape who we are, and the directions in which we wish, can and will go.