Reference: Fischer, N. and S. Dannenberg (2021). "The social construction of futures: Proposing plausibility as a semiotic approach for Critical Futures Studies." Futures 129: 102729.
Abstract: This article examines the role of plausibility in the construction of futures, taking a critical constructionist perspective. Plausibility builds on the intersubjectively constructed coherence to prior knowledges and is understood, in line with constructionist meaning-based approaches, to be grounded in dominant and naturalized conceptions of the present. A re-reading of the ongoing discussions of plausibility in Futures Studies shows how plausibility is associated with different roles and implications depending on the epistemological perspective taken. Moreover, plausibility sets the range of futures for further consideration. Plausibility is thus at the core of constructing futures, prefiguring them based on the present, and thus re-stating the present within images of the future. This aspect renders the term fruitful as a semiotic approach for Critical Futures Studies. Plausibility is discussed as a starting point for reflexive inquiries. It enables the analysis of the overlaps to dominant perceptions of the world, and serves as a departure point for distancing and re-ordering knowledges and creating other futures through plausibilizing other presents. This paper enriches the ongoing attempts to understand plausibility through a critical constructionist perspective and suggests potential theoretical and methodological approaches for critically working with plausibility, including semiotic guiding questions for de- and reconstructing futures.
My notes: I'm simply adding here an image and a table to add to the abstract:
