Cultures of Speculation: How to Integrate Imaginaries of the Yet-to-Come into Our Ethnographies

Public Roundtable | October 20, 2026 | University of Bern & Online Livestream: https://tobira.unibe.ch/events/2026/cultures-of-speculations/v/NUscSvCY7y6

How do we ethnographically study something that has not yet happened? Futures are anticipated, promised, imagined and calculated long before they materialize. And in the process, they already shape the present.

On October 20, I'll be joining Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou and Giacomo Sartori Veronese for a public roundtable on Cultures of Speculation: How to Integrate Imaginaries of the Yet-to-Come into Our Ethnographies, chaired by Tanushree Kaushal. The discussion is part of a two-day workshop organised by Stefan Leins at the University of Bern and will be open to everyone, both in person and online.

What Comes Before Speculation?

Speculation has become an increasingly important subject of ethnographic inquiry, particularly in relation to uncertain futures, technological promises and the anticipation of environmental change. Yet much of the discussion focuses on how speculative practices produce expectations, shape decisions and eventually contribute to materializing particular futures. I am particularly interested in taking a step back and asking what comes before speculation itself.

The futures we imagine do not emerge from nowhere. They are shaped by existing infrastructures, accumulated experiences, professional routines, forms of knowledge and relations of power. These conditions create uneven horizons of possibility, in which some futures appear plausible, desirable or even inevitable, while others remain difficult to imagine or fail to become relevant in the first place.

Speculation, in this sense, moves along already structured relational pathways. Some connections appear reasonable, technically sound or simply obvious, while others remain outside what can plausibly be thought together. This raises the question, who gets to define the horizons within which futures are imagined, and which possibilities are foreclosed before speculation even begins?

Speculation and Ethnographic Practice

These questions also invite us to reflect on our own disciplinary practices. After all, ethnographic interpretation involves drawing connections between partial observations, experiences and forms of knowledge. How much do we speculate ourselves when interpreting data, writing articles and producing representations?

And shouldn't this prompt us to revisit the Writing Culture debate under new conditions, extending questions of representation to the very conditions under which certain interpretations and connections become possible?

These are some of the questions I look forward to discussing at the roundtable.

Join the Conversation Online

The roundtable is a public event, and everyone interested in speculation, ethnography and the politics of possible futures is warmly invited to join the discussion.

Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2026Location: Room 224, Mittelstrasse 43, University of Bern

Participants: Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Giacomo Sartori Veronese and Kathrin Eitel

Chair: Tanushree Kaushal

Organiser: Stefan Leins

Livestream: https://tobira.unibe.ch/events/2026/cultures-of-speculations/v/NUscSvCY7y6

The event will be livestreamed, and the organisers are also planning to record it.