After Precarity, Polarization, and Populism: Figurations for the 21st Century

After Precarity,Polarization, and Populism: Figurations for the 21st Century takes as its starting point aesthetic thinking as critical thinking. The project theorizes “microutopian imaginaries” as sites of resistance to homogenizing discourse and political resignation, asking among other: How can we work through and past a time where precarity (uncertainty, short-termism), polarization and populism dominate? What characterizes imaginings of the future which fuel engagement, strengthen political agency, or increase democratic participation? Starting from the assumption that, in order to create a better future, we have to be able to imagine it, the project thus explores how such imaginings increasingly seem to take place as and in everyday- or microutopias. They can be approached as spatially and temporally demarcated moments in thought or deed which open up for spaces of possibilities. Among the long term goals the project pursues are 1) strengthening inter-facultary and interdisciplinary research, 2) strengthening the Humanities’ involvement in critical societal challenges and our understanding of the practical use of the Humanities, and 3) contributing to strengthen teacher education and respond to the needs for lifelong learning.

The above advance the critical significance of aesthetics and cultural studies in the encounter with societal challenges, thus underscoring the humanities’ central function to understanding our contemporary.

The project gathers senior and junior scholars from several departments at the University of Bergen and will in the course of 2024 have three research seminars in Bergen and York where also external participants from other universities in Norway, England, India, and Denmark join the conversations. The research group Aesthetics and Cultural Studies will in in addition to the seminars also host Work in Progress sessions and other events throughout the year.