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imagination - future present (socioligal interest in scifi (stories about…
imagination - future present
socioligal interest in scifi
stories about the future tell us about the present
help to from what the future will be
predict the future or by imaging future could be making it less/more possible
star wards, the strategic defence initiative and president regan
both ways of thinking are committed to the construction and exploration of different social worlds
pedagogical - providing concrete examples of different aspects of social theory and practice
also key methodological tool for sociologists
have a lot in common- sf that contains at least some kind of key events of the ovum, cognitive estrangement and critical utopia/systopia
robert anson heinlein
science fiction magazine - best sellers
tv seriers, films
invited words - waldorf, brok
became a cultural
taanstafl
why socialism should be eradicated
appealed to left and right but he was much more right
future dependant on the smooth operation of science and thechnology
medical or environmental disaster/ social breakdown
impact of technological disaster on human and natural systems - bhopal, chernobyl
intersection/interdependence between social and expert systems
what is SF?
no agreement on definition or origins
many different sub-types within the genre, presented in many different media s well
3 things characterise sociologically useful SF:
The Novum
the 'new thing'
could be anything but must be cognitively and rationally plausible even if impossible in current scientific, medical or technical understanding
SF doesn't deal with empirical reality but empirical methodology
the cognitive estrangement
chronological
physical
in description
critical utopia
early utopian writings - close affinities with marxist and socialist thought
technocratic meritocracies, militant socialism, agrarian comminsim
' one didn't question sociologists and their computers' asimov, the naked sun
dystopia and critical utopia
each utopia - at least potentially- contains the seeds of dystopia - depending on your point of view
critical utopias - depicting the hope of a better world, even while flaws remain
strong links with equal rights and environmental movements
the strangers gaze
ability to look at our society but with eyes of a stranger
either an anthropologist or a sociologist
in either case, to consider the extent to which one’s own taken-for-granted expectations are not natural laws, but social constructions, dependent on wider social, political, economic and technical systems that are themselves highly contingent
what is contingent is capable of change
SF makes it s audience reflect on social, political and personal
the imaginative exploration of different kinds of societies
political economy and class consciousness
individual free enterprise versus monopoly captislms
inter-war depression
international instability leading to global warfare
glorification of the individual genius in american culture/growth of corporate capitalism
monopoly/ corporate capitalism suffocating individual innovation and freedom
focus on forces driving sense of progress
interest in the individual
big business stop development
american capitalism
the individual
'logic of empire' novella that appeared in 1941
main character humphrey wingate signs himself into 6 years of indentured labour while drunk
has parallels with plantation slavery/ set peonage/ wage slavery
significance of false class consciousness - both on the part of the oppressed and the oppressor
corporate class consciousness
notion of the company was something to dread
logic of empire complacent the circle of marx's class consciousness
day of the triffids
novel dealing with post apocalyptic social conditions
what can vs should be done
social collapse not from alien invasion but contradictions inherent of modernity itself "we brought this lot down on ourselves'
John wyndham parkes lucas beyon harris
politics and public relations
alien invites = potential apocalypse but failure of social institutions that distaste
guarantees short term, commercial, corporate interest overwhelming long term public good
the waters rise and the breaching of the london flood barriers heralds the beginning of the end
division of labour
how SF reflects and in turn focuses sociological theory and practice
theocracy & caste
fundamentalist christian group overthrows the us government in the aftermath of a nuclear disaste
population decline blamed on women who where divided into caste in order to maximise reproduction potential
women no longer have autonomy - no personal or political control of their bodies
not even names but temporary designations based on the name of the man to whom they are assigned
environment, biomedicine and postcolonial plurality
climate change as a key element or actor in the plot
biomedicine - again, post human, but modification through biology or chemistry rather then engineering
multiple ethnicities
and expresses changing social hopes and fears
race was a category either neglected of treated in the simplest of term
exception of 'the comet'
or writing in perspective of white americans
octavia bulter, civil right and the 1970's
kindred
exploration of how consciousness is shaped by social context, and an opportunity to reflect on how the 1970's america saw both race and the history of race
black lives matter
androgyny and binary thinking
the planet winter
characters neither male nor female
how gendered people manage relationships with non binary people
what drives social progress, sex, religion or environment?
feminist utopia to cyber punk and theocracy 1970s-80s
1980's
dominance of a conservative agenda in both use and britain
usa - increasing dominance of the religious right
deregulation of markets and destabilisation of organised labour/polarisation of rich and poor
cyber punk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a future setting that tends to focus on society as "high tech low life" featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements,
neuromacer and post-industrial capitalism
individual talent controlled by totalitarian corporations, who have a monopoly, not just on economic but military power (Weber)
explicit attention to slippage between human
post industrial post humanism
three key ways in which SF relates to sociology
expression of socially situated hopes and fears
illustration of different aspects of social theory or sociological problems
exploration of the consequences of putting social theory / philosophy into practice e
SF= thought experiment, playing with variations of the human condition to explore what unites and divides us as a species . its about different ways of being human, and how different societies interact with their environments