World organisations, world events and world objects: how science, politics, and the mass media co-produce climate futures

• Published in: Globalizations Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 70 - 87
• Main Authors: Ibrahim, Youssef, Rödder, Simone, Schnegg, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Climate change; co-production; event; Future; Imagination; Industrial production; Industrialization; Interfaces; Mass media; Mass media effects; object; organisation; Production; Selfreflection; Social meaning; synchronisation; Time; Wealth
• ISSN: 1474-7731; 1474-774X
• DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2023.2215409

Societies are becoming increasingly aware that they owe their emergence, wealth and industrialisation to their influence as a geophysical force. Social and environmental scientists have analysed the genesis of this self-reflection and pointed to past failures that have led to this predicament. Following the gradually beginning research on differing temporalities, temporal practices and time regimes in the climate change discourse, this article shifts the perspective from past obstacles to possibilities for shaping the future. We historically reconstruct the emergence of interfaces of future co-production and theorise how these enable the imagination, communication and negotiation of climate futures. We conceptualise (1) world organisations as permanent interfaces of future co-production that bring together disparate temporal perspectives, (2) world events as temporary settings that accelerate the production of climate futures, and (3) world objects as mobile webs of meaning that travel between social worlds.