Why sociology needs anticipation?

It is possible to underline a strong tendency toward “mainstreaming the future” – to use John Urry’s expression within sociology today. The introduction of the future in sociological theory and research is not simply the opening of a new “field of inquiry” but rather is profoundly related to some of the problems that the discipline has encountered in its development and meets some of the answers that have recently been at the core of its development. The number of theoretical reflections and empirical analyses that consider the future is increasing, and the field of studies of futurity in sociology is flourishing, with new contributions added every day (for instance, in youth studies, feminist studies, emotion and affect studies, and science and technology). The chapter focuses on three main theoretical and analytical themes in this development. The first theme concerns the link between social action and anticipation. I argue that there is a profound link between futurity and social action, which has always been present, although not sufficiently developed, in social theory (Schutz, Mead, Bourdieu). The second theme concerns the development of the latent futures dimension and the related idea that an encounter with the future is not simply “an encounter with a non-tangible and invisible world” (Adam and Groves, Future matters. Action, knowledge, ethic, 2007: XV). The third theme, which concludes the chapter, can be called the re-enchantment of the future, that is, the recognition of the importance of nonrational, emotional, and imaginative elements for anticipating the future.