June 2-3, 2022
About The Event
The online mini-conference brought together psychologists studying “people thinking about the future”, including work on utopian thinking, prospection, cognitive alternatives to the status quo, legacy motivations, radical imagination, imagining fictional or alternative worlds, prefigurative action and dystopian thinking. Many of the presentations addressed climate change and environmental issues.
To join a mailing list for people who want to discuss research and theorizing related to the mini-conference theme, click here to sign up for the Social Psychology of the Future Mailing List!
Event Schedule
All times listed are Pacific Time (UTC – 8)
Day 1
2 June, 2022
03:00 pm, Pacific Time
WELCOME
03:15 pm
SeSSION 1
Julian Fernando
Utopian thinking: The social psychology of contemplating an ideal society
Morgana Lizzio-Wilson
All In Time: How Emotions Tied to the Past, Present, and Future Shape Collective Action
Jasmin Jossin
The End of Human Dominance: an Xtopian Intervention on a Symbiotic Future
4:15 pm
BREAK and breakout rooms with speakers
4:30 pm
5:00 pm
SESSION 2
Emma Thomas
“The Times They Are A’Changin’”: How experiencing a discontinuous present and imagining the future shape intention to engage in progressive versus reactionary forms of collective action
Annika Lutz
Thinking about a more sustainable future encourages environmental activism
Karen Hamann
How to envision an ecological future? An experimental study on the effectiveness of presented vs. self-generated visions
Alexander Burton
Collapse, utopia, and Tasmania: Escape in the prefigurative futures of climate change
Daniel Kelly
Problems, possibility, change: urban visions of more local food
Alix Alto
Radical imagination and future thinking
6:00 pm
BREAK & Breakout rooms with speakers
6:15 pm
closing remarks
Day 2
3 June, 2022
09:00 am, Pacific Time
welcome
09:15 am
SESSION 3
Paul Bain
Understanding the path (we think) we’re on: Dimensions and implications of worldviews about social change.
Sean Nicholas
How are urban farms prefigurative? Using community psychology to understand empowerment and alternative behaviours
Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu
Psychology at the crossroads of climate change
10:15 am
BREAK & Breakout rooms with speakers
10:30 am
SESSION 4
Stylianos Syropoulos
A Two-Dimensional Model of Legacy Motivation: Evidence for the Existence of Impact-Oriented and Reputation-Focused Legacy Motives
Michael T. Schmitt
Imagining a sustainable world: A qualitative analysis of Environmental Cognitive Alternatives
Annayah Prosser
Transformative and Prefigurative Environments: The psychological value of experiencing pockets of the future in the present
11:00 am
BREAK and breakout rooms with speakers
11:15 am
PANEL A: Stories
Matthew Adams Imagining livable climate futures: Using stories, narratives, and storytelling in counterfactual world-making
11:15 am
panel b: Social Psychologies of and for the Future
Carlie D. Trott, Isabel Unanue, Kai Reimer-Watts
Prefigurative Politics and Social Psychologies of the Future: Embodying Transformation in the Present
Thomas W. Schubert, Gulnaz Anjum, Diana M. Lizarazo, Anca Minescu
Teaching for the Future: Promoting Social and Climate Sustainability through Teaching in the Global-MINDS Program
12:15 pm
closing remarks
About The Event Organizers
The organizing committee consists of Michael T. Schmitt, Alix Alto, Kevin Carriere, Annika Lutz, Caroline Mackay, Annayah Prosser
Although this event is online, it is being hosted from the Burnaby campus of Simon Fraser University, located on the unceded traditional territories of the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ), Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓ əm) and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations.
Sponsors
The Social Psychology of the Future Mini-Conference is supported by a SSHRC grant to Michael Schmitt and the Sustainability, Identity and Social Change Lab at Simon Fraser University.
