Hinweis: Die Veranstaltung findet ausschließlich in englischer Sprache statt.

Shaping Future Society. Future-oriented Communitization in Times of Crises

International Conference 27.-29.05.2026 University of Applied Sciences Fulda

Conference Theme

Contemporary society is characterized by multiple insecurities which are often experienced as crises. This is closely linked to questions about the future because crises make the future appear less tangible and more uncertain for many people. Nevertheless, imaginations of (different) futures may serve as blueprints for action in times of crises. As the social sciences have been dealing with mutually influencing crisis topics, the debate surrounding the term itself and the fuzziness of its meaning thus increasingly involves a variety of future-related questions and draws attention towards the ways in which future is experienced and shaped in contemporary society. A classical sociological conceptualisation of such future plans has been provided by looking at approaches to utopia, which provides useful insights into the relevance of the temporal dimension of future visions and future-oriented practice. Current academic debates focus on future orientations and temporalities, the future of (racial) capitalism, challenges to human and non-human survival, or on concepts like prefigurative politics as a tool for analysing how a particular end is being ‘shaped’ in different realms of society.

The DFG-funded research impulse "Shaping Future Society" (SaFe) investigates the mutual constitution of future-oriented practices and community processes and invites contributions for a conference, which aims to explore and evaluate alternative visions and practices that mobilize societal change, critically assess the impact of community-driven initiatives in fostering social transformation, and advance methodological debates that enrich transformative research. We assume that community, as a basic element of social order, acts as a nucleus of social change in everyday life. Therefore, we are particularly interested in how communities are produced and reproduced through future-oriented practices and how they enable and act towards productively responding to envisaged future challenges.

ALL EVENTS WILL TAKE PLACE IN ROOM 20.010 – full program

Keynotes

27.05., 2:30-3:30 p.m.  

The Insurrection of Care: Towards a Communitized and Salutogenic Health Ecosystem

Prof. Dr. Djenane Ramalho de Oliveira 

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil  

29.05., 12:45-1:45 p.m.

Infrastructures of Care

Prof. Dr. Daniel Loick 

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands 

The lectures are public; you do not have to participate in the conference to attend. 

Plakat der Konferenz.

quick links

E-Mail

Program

Campus Map

Book of Abstracts

Panels

The conference is organized in seven thematic fields, six of which correspond directly to one of the research projects within the SaFe initiative. 

GENERAL CONTRIBUTIONS 27.05. 4-5:30 p.m. 

  • Markus Riepenhausen (Osnabrück University) Transfigurations. On the forms of Futurization in modern future-societies
  • David Schröder (Humboldt University Berlin) When the Future Becomes Certainty: An Exploration of the Relation between Community Formation and Conceptions of the Future in the Field of Religion

Moderation: Tanja Scheiterbauer

HEALTH 28.05. 9-10:30 a.m. 

  • Kitrina Douglas and David Carless (University of West London) ‘Future practices in View & Visible’: Exploring how documentary film making might transform research
  • Natalie Powroznik (Institut für soziale Arbeit e. V., Münster) Designing Futures: Innovation Pathways in Healthcare Transformation
  • Paula de Jong, Jan O. Finkbeiner, Maja Frölich (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) Mingling with futures - Public Health and Climate Sciences as Transformative Epistemic Communities!?

Moderation: Simone Kreher

HOUSING 28.05. 11-12:30 a.m. 

  • Samuel Flach, Oliver Zillig (Gemeinwohlwohnen e.V.) Gemeinwohlwohnen – Organizing intersectional, anti-discriminatory, solidarity co-housing in Munich
  • Carina Peek, Femke Bijker, Ingrid Bakker (University of Applied Sciences Windesheim) Citizen initiatives for stronger future-proof communities
  • Jakob Domke , Madeline Brandt, Monika Alisch, Martina Ritter (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) Communal Housing and Living in Times of Societal Crisis

Moderation: Madeline Brandt 

NUTRITION 28.05. 2-3:30 p.m. 

  • Linda Hering (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) Feeding the Future: Hawker Centres and the Governance of Urban Food Systems in Singapore
  • Matthias Kussin (Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences) Imagining Futures under Uncertainty: Agricultural Transformation Between Crisis, System Logic, and Imagination
  • Martin Winter, Désirée Janowsky, Tonia Ruppenthal, Jana Rückert-John (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) Community-Based Futures of Nutrition. Community Involvement, Social Innovation, and Organisational Formalisation in the Context of Alternative Food Practices 

Moderation: Jana Rückert-John, Tonia Ruppenthal

BIOGRAPHY 28.05. 4-5:30 p.m. 

  • Antje Daniel (University of Vienna) Revisiting Imaginaries of Housing through Occupation: The Case of Reclaim the City
  • Rebecca Hofmann (University of Education Freiburg) Free or forced, fixed and fluid: Futures in refugee biographies Shaping Future and Solidarity in Life Stories
  • Felix Roßmeißl (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) The Case of Volunteers in Sudanese Emergency Response Rooms  

Moderation: Rixta Wundrak 

INDIGENEITY 29.05. 9-10:30 a.m.

  • Julia Bernegger, Elisabeth Sarah Steiner (University of Vienna) Water, Future, and Comunalidad in the Sierra Nororiental de Puebla, Mexico
  • Linda Uchoi, Biswaranjan Tripura (CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore Central Campus, India and Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai) ‘Who Will Be Accountable for our Future Well-Being?’: Uchoi Indigenous Women‘s Lived Experience of New Forms of ‘Work’ in Tripura, Northeast India
  • Bablu Chakma (Fulda University of Applied Sciences) Weaving Community: Bain and Everyday Indigeneity in the Chittagong Hill Tracts

Moderation: Eva Gerharz

PROTEST 29.05. 10:45-12:15 a.m. 

  • Lea Büllesbach, Ferdinand Oerzmann (Bielefeld University) Why we need to transcend “security”. Cop-watch initiatives and solidarity networks as counter-communities transforming injustic
  • Marco Antonio Teixeira (Maria Sibylla Merian Centre) Just Transitions and the Making of Futures: Activist Perspectives from the People’s Summit
  • Sabrina Zajak (KHSB and DeZIM) Prefiguring Eco-Democratic Futures: Wilderness Camps as Communities of Socio-Ecological Transformation

Moderation: Sebastian Garbe, Alissa Starodub

Additional Formats

Round Table Discussion

27.05.2026, 5:45 p.m. - 6:45 p.m. 

The Round Table Discussion creates a room to engage in an open and reflective exchange on the role of science in shaping and accompanying societal transformation processes. Designed as both a podium discussion and a collaborative dialogue, this format provides a platform for questioning how research contributes to understanding, enabling, and guiding change in an increasingly complex world.

We begin with an discussion of invited guests and SaFe members introducing personal research experiences and institutional perspectives that highlight the diversity of ways in which scientists approach challenges related to transformation, sustainability, and social responsibility. After the introductory discussion, the floor opens to all attendees, creating space for collective reflection and exchange.

Special Issue Launch

28.05.2026, 1:30 p.m.- 2 p.m.

This launch event celebrates the publication of the special issueStruggles for Hope – Negotiating Futures in Times of Global Crises in the Austrian Journal of Development Studies. The collection explores how individuals, communities, and institutions navigate uncertain futures marked by multiple, intersecting crises: ecological, social, and political.

At a time when global challenges often seem overwhelming, the contributions in this issue turn attention to “hope” not as naive optimism, but as a situated and contested practice. The authors examine how hope emerges in moments of struggle, how it can inspire action and imagination, and how it is negotiated across contexts of environmental governance, activism, and everyday life.

Film Screening

27.05.2026, 5 p.m.

„Wir müssen gar keinen Autokran hierher bestellen.“
["We don't even need to order a crane out here."]

Short film consisting of 16mm color negative footage and interviews with the occupiers of the Langener Bannwald (Banny) shortly before the eviction in November 2025. 

By Balduin Pfeffer

Location and Contact

The conference takes place at the University of Applied Sciences Fulda, room 20.010. (Campus Map)

For any questions please contact us via safe(at)hs-fulda.de

Eudres Logo