Abstract
This paper explores the uneasy relationship between forward-oriented sociology and public debate as implicit assumptions and explicit operationalizations of the future shift from determinism to contingency and contention. The stakes are not merely theoretical but also practical because methodological pre-decisions shape sociology's relation to public debate and its abilities to tackling the emergent challenges of our time. Sociology was geared since its inception toward collective reflection of not only present or past conditions of social existence but also of potentials for change. Shifting epistemological, institutional, and social constellations shaped the expansion, evasion, and re-emergence of future orientations. Distancing itself from the business of prediction, sociological futures research is focused on the dynamics of imagining and making futures, current trends, likely and possible scenarios, and their social implications.
Keywords:
Future; History of sociology; Imagination; Public; Sociological theory