‘We Thought the World Was Makeable’: Scenario Planning and Postcolonial Fiction

Governing the future through scenaristic and simulative modalities of imagination

“…In a similar vein, Susanne Krasmann (2015: 203) distinguishes between ‘the possibility to be imagined and the probability to be calculated’. These and other scholars thus see scenarios as part of a new modality of governing that anticipates the future through the use of the imagination, which often goes beyond calculation—that is, risk-based rationality (Anderson, 2010a; Aradau and Van Munster, 2011; Armstrong, 2012; De Goede, 2008; Guston 2014; Kaufmann, 2016; Krasmann, 2015; Lakoff, 2008; Lentzos and Rose, 2009; Mathews and Barnes, 2016; O’Brien, 2016; Samimian-Darash, 2016; Schoch-Spana, 2004; Simon and De Goede, 2015). Consequently, most of the above studies resonate with the notion of premediation (De Goede, 2008; Grusin, 2004) and the role of imagination in governing the future.…”

“…Despite the rich and growing scholarship on scenarios in particular, studies have rarely examined the actual practices of scenario exercises in empirical settings, and those that have done so are mainly based on historical and documentary analysis (e.g. Aradau and Van Munster, 2011; Brassett and Vaughan-Williams, 2015; Collier, 2008; De Goede et al., 2014; Krasmann, 2015; Lakoff, 2008; Lentzos and Rose, 2009; O’Brien, 2016). Consequently, the literature tends to overlook differences between various imagination-based technologies referred to by the general term scenario .…”

Questioning the Limits of Humanity in Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie and Animal’s People by Indra Sinha

“…Similarly, Susie O'Brien sees connections between Animal's People and a view on existence of a strategy that demeans the past and creates a future, that which-founding itself in capitalism and colonialism-moves towards the idea of globalisation, presupposing a relentless process of developing a new complex system which is referred to as the world [9]. We might therefore say that Bhopal (Khaufpur)-the site of Animal's People-is represented as a unique space (world market), suggesting a transition from metabolic into virtual time of endless progress (future as equivalent of a new "now") and physical transparency of mass as quantity of energy… [10].…”

“…172). 9 Saleem Sinai and Animal inhabit worlds which, to the fullest extent, unveil what appears to be the process of disintegration of a modern subject. In this new space, there are no longer any strict restrictions, taboos or powerful Fatherly Laws that act above the human self, be it in the organic form of a family, nation-state or some patriarchal extension of family at the level of societal community [10].…”

Unmasking scenario planning: The colonization of the future in the ‘Local Governments of the Future’ program

“…Scenario planning results in increased scope for strategic action to realize undetermined possible futures. Though it tends to limit itself to descriptions of alternative futures (Amer et al, 2013;O'Brien, 2016;van Wijck & Niemeijer, 2016), without prescriptive claims, it is a powerful instrument that can serve or undermine democracy and its future (Barber, 1998). Its liberating potential depends on the range of different accounts of the world and of possible future worlds that is taken into account during the process.…”