Historically, the capability of predicting the future has always been perceived as a matter of certain inequalities, reflecting the initiation in or access to significant knowledge with regard to the future. The prophet, the philosopher, the statesman and the scientist are emblematic figures of such cognitive hierarchies. The text addresses a problem which has not been at the forefront of futures research attention, but nevertheless it reflects some major changes in the domain of foresight. A great deal of effort has been put in search for adequate ways to handle the complexities of contemporary life as well as to come to terms with the increasing unpredictability of the future. The unstable societal dynamics challenges the traditional notions and practice of foresight. The broader inclusion of diverse participants (experts, citizens, stakeholders or nongovernmental activists) and their perspectives has been seriously considered as a means to expand the visibility of the future and promote firmer engagement with it. The promise of а participatory approach in futures research and its practical manifestations (with sometimes controversial effects) are in the focus of the paper.
In this article, we examine the possibility of exercising critique through the mandatory ethical coverage that EU security research projects must be subjected to. Applied ethics, so we argue, speaks to several core issues in the critical security studies agenda, such as turning abstract considerations of critique into forms of tangible cooperation, engaging exoteric communities, and placing normative questions about security within concrete contexts of its imagination and production. Accordingly, it can be seen as a concrete way of putting critique to work. At the same time, however, applied ethics does face considerable challenges that result from its location in the middle of numerous cross-pressures, such as political ambitions, economic interests, technological rationales and the demands of security professionals. These challenges risk turning what was intended to be the critical corrective of applied ethics into a legitimizing function of mere 'ethics approval'. Drawing on personal experiences as well as debates on critical security studies and ethics, we discuss some of these challenges and discuss the possibility of and conditions for critique within the arena of EU security research.
The text aims at opening a space for discussion on the problems of governance under the strain of uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic is a testing experience for contemporary liberal democracies and their underlying governance paradigm. The article concentrates on three main issues. First, it explores how the crisis challenged authorities and their ability to sustain an overarching societal agenda, a normative horizon of governance, in view of an uncertain future. Second, it focuses on the driving logic of governance mechanisms and problematizes the preoccupation with the management of effects when dealing with social problems. Last but not least, it points to two particular dangers for democracy that emerge from the failures of the current governance paradigm in the face of the pandemic: legitimizing the imbalance of powers and normalizing social distance as the new crystal lattice of public and social interaction.
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