IAS Turbulence: The Turbulent Future of the Past - Media and Environment in 1970s Sweden
23 January 2019, 3:30 pm–5:30 pm

We are delighted to welcome Dr Dominic Hinde (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh), and Dr Claire Thomson (UCL Scandinavian Studies) for this talk.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Claire Thomson
Location
-
IAS ForumGround floor, South Wing, UCLLondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
In our image-saturated society, environmental disaster and the notion of the Anthropocene take root in the popular imagination through a proliferation of social media memes and visuals. But if our current media landscape is technologically unique, collective anxiety about a turbulent future is not. 1970s Sweden offers one fertile case study in how images and narratives of environmental degradation, nuclear power, over-population and other threats circulated in the press, in public debates, and in literature and historiography. This research seminar examines how images and narratives travelled and functioned in the public sphere and the popular imagination, what kinds of turbulent futures the Swedes of forty years ago envisaged, and how these linger into the present day. Underpinning the discussion is an interest in the notion of the future itself: how is the future imagined in specific times and places, and what can we learn about our own time from the turbulent future of the past?
Speakers:
- Dr Dominic Hinde (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh)
- Dr Claire Thomson (UCL Scandinavian Studies)
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