{"id":5736,"date":"2026-04-20T12:03:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwest-alliance.de\/?page_id=5736"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T10:04:22","slug":"competing-futures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/northwest-alliance.de\/en\/startseite\/high-profile-areas\/competing-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"Competing Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wissenschaftliche<\/div><\/div>
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Competing Futures<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>
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Education, Discursive Formations,
\nand Media<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Futures are socio-material constructs that guide our current practices; and they range from individual projections to visions of communities and companies, and to national and transnational imaginaries. As \u201ccultural facts,\u201d their competing character reflects power dynamics in and across societies. At the Universities of Oldenburg and Bremen, research into the emergence and performativity of competing futures is developed with an interdisciplinary approach. <\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
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Disciplines<\/h3>\n
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Educational Science
\nCultural Studies
\nHistory
\nLinguistics
\nLiterary Studies
\nMedia and Communication Studies
\nPhilosophy
\nSocial Anthropology
\nSociology
\nStudy of religion<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The analysis is based on three interconnected fields: education, discursive formation, and media. Education is a normatively contested field in which visions of the future are negotiated and institutionalized. Our intersectional and inclusive approach challenges existing inequalities and hegemonic knowledge systems in the shaping of educational futures. We examine discursive formations as arenas in which visions of the future are debated controversially and, increasingly, through the rhetoric of polarization. Media are both means of shaping competing futures and of their articulation, in that media technologies \u2013 such as communicative AI \u2013 are themselves seen as embodiments of the future. <\/p>\n

By systematically relating these fields to one another, the mechanisms underlying the construction of possible futures becomes apparent, revealing how they guide practices in the here and now. For example, predictions of an educational crisis prompt the revision of curricula; ignorance of certain ideas about the future prevents them from even becoming the subject of public debate; or techno-optimistic visions of the future steer the allocation of resources in certain directions. Pooling expertise from the humanities and social sciences of Bremen and Oldenburg in this field, we investigate not only how futures emerge, how they compete for attention and credibility, and how some are brought to the fore, while other futures remained invisible. In so doing, we also explore how these futures shape processes of societal transformation. <\/p>\n

Through the newly established \u201cCompeting Futures Hub,\u201d we are connecting research in media and communication studies and contradiction studies at the University of Bremen with the genealogically oriented cultural and social sciences research at the University of Oldenburg, and integrate this with the migration-related educational research for which both universities are renowned. For humanities and social sciences research on competing futures, this hub creates the ideal conditions for large-scale collaborative projects.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>

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Key Research Initiatives<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>
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