Institute of Sociology NASU

Imaginations and expectations in images of the future

stmm. 2025 (1): 105-138

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2025.01.105

Full text:

MYKOLA SHULGA, Corresponding member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor, Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Social Psychology, Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (12, Shovkovychna St., Kyiv, 01021)

chebrec@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7763-7195

Without understanding what time is, what its types are, it is impossible to understand our expectations about the future. Therefore, first of all, the article considers time as a specific phenomenon, discusses the idea of the future time, and also examines the features of future social time, in particular the future in the future, the future in the present and the future in the past. The ideas of what will be ahead take the form of images of the future. It is analyzed what images of the future are by the level of reliability, by the generalized content of possible events, by the time horizon. The fundamental differences between images of the distant and near future are considered. It is shown that the main elements of images of the distant future are imaginations, and images of the near future are expectations.

Keywords: time, social time, future, images of the future, scenarios, narratives, predictions, forecasts, experience, expectations, imaginations

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Received 05.12.2024