What Has Posterity Ever Done for Me
Future Generations, Intergenerational Justice, and the Chronopolitics of Distant Futures
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4495600 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Benjamin Möckel (0000-0001-5781-0694, University of Cologne, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 66-85 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History and Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2656 • E-ISSN: 1468-2303 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/hith.12325 |
| OpenAlex | W4387021541 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 11 |
Future generations" play a key role in current political debates. In the context of the climate crisis especially, political controversies are often framed as moral problems of "intergenerational justice." This article aims to historicize the use of the concept of "future generations" in modern political discourse and to uncover its long-and often ambivalent-history. Its main argument is that talking about "future generations" was part of an attempt to integrate (distant) futures into the political discourse of the time. The first part of the article outlines a theoretical perspective on the relationship between generations and temporalities. The second part focuses on how anticipating "future generations" became an important part of the history of utopian thinking and political planning in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially in the realm of demographic and economic discussions. The third part analyzes the emergence of "future ethics" and "intergenerational justice" as important political discourses in the 1970s. This part refers both to the academic debates about "future generations" and to the way political decision-makers used the concept to legitimize their policies. The article argues that the concept of "future generations" should not be taken as an ethical principle that transcended the political debates of the present. Rather, it was itself the result of intense political controversies
Ambivalence · Argument (complex analysis · Climate justice · Context (archaeology · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Realm · Social science · Sociology · Temporalities · Climate Change and Geoengineering · History · Law
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.
The Imperative of Responsibility
Moral Problems of Population
Das Problem der Generationen
Representing future generations
Giving a Voice to Posterity – Deliberative Democracy and Representation of Future People
Are We Ready for An Ecological Morality
The Imperative of Responsibility
A Mathematical Theory of Saving
Against Periodization
The Politics of Expertise in Congress
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |