The Sociology of Futurelessness

This paper contributes to ‘sociologies of the future’ by discussing the concept of ‘futurelessness’. I provide a conceptual elaboration of what is meant by ‘futurelessness’, beginning with its use in the psychological literature of the 1980s concerned with the effect of a constant threat of nuclear war. I argue that this concept is of value to ongoing sociological debates about the relationship between how the future is imagined, power, and social change. I further discuss the extent to which ‘futurelessness’ is a particular mode of relating to and feeling about the future that is characteristic of contemporary European societies. I discuss how this ‘futurelessness’ must be understood in relation to political and cultural developments of the past fifty years and consider its significance for sociological debates about contemporary futurity.