The political imaginary of a society, as a human artifice, requires being thought of in constructivist terms. The various theories of fiction help us understand how the conceptual realms in which we move and develop our political practices are constructed. These fictional processes, of course, are far from being opposed to reality, but rather involve fiction as a delimiter of the conceivable, of what can be modeled by verbal means. Following Hayden White, we are convinced that there is a primarily ethical responsibility in the fictional procedures used to construct the conceptual artifacts through which we intervene in society and imagine it. Technological development over the last few decades and global changes in the geopolitical landscape have led to various imaginings about the future. Prospective, which involves the ability to imagine possible future scenarios from elements that arise from our present, such as political, economic, social, and technological, among others, becomes a fundamental tool when thinking about fiction theories. Following Mark Fisher, in capitalism, theory-fiction is no longer represented or coded as "fantasy," but rather anticipates the Real by capturing its tendencies or virtual potentials, and then influences reality and contributes to its configuration by actualizing these potentials. Thus, the prevailing narrative about possible future scenarios generates a collective narrative identity that allows modeling the future to come and avoid the emergence of the new, since everything that is coming is expected. The new should not be confused with an adaptation to the present. The new must allow the creation of the unexpected, which generates the estrangement that makes possible the state of shock necessary for the emergencies of alternatives to the capitalist system. This gaze seems to dissolve into the concept of hungology, whose nostalgia refers to persistence, repetition, and prefiguration that seem to delay the arrival of an alien future, a future completely opposite to the present. The goal of this call is to engage in dialogue with a future that currently oscillates between apocalyptic scenarios and updated or eternalized presents. To do this, it is necessary to develop a field of study that involves a deep analysis of the ontological assumptions that operate in our present and therefore shape our political imaginary for the future. A critical review of how the metaphors we use to conceptualize and the tropes we use to weave the discourses about public space and its evolution operate. In the philosophy of the last 50 years, there are many and varied currents that allow us to problematize this topic and that we propose as lines of work for this dossier: Laclau's rhetorical constitution of society, Hayden White's narrativism, Derrida's philosophy of difference, the contributions of Gilles Deleuze, Žižek, Rancière, Sadin, or even modern authors like Marx and Spinoza. We invite the entire community to submit their contributions on this topic, which we believe is currently a pressing issue for philosophical debate.
Published: 2024-06-30