“What have future generations ever done for us?” Future expectations and present dispositions for social-ecological transformations

Abstract

The concept of ‘sustainable welfare’ conceptualizes welfare and wellbeing within planetary limits. Yet there is a lack of knowledge about possible social and political carriers of corresponding social-ecological transformations. For the promotion of the changes of societal core institutions that climate scientists deem necessary in the nearer future knowledge of which parts of the population are most likely to support these and which would resist such a political turn is crucial. This paper uses a Bourdieusian methodology to explore the field of the general public’s perceptions of social-ecological transformations in relation to their future orientations. We assume that an eco-social policy agenda capable of initiating transformational social and ecological change is most likely to receive critical societal support if it is close to people’s experiences and, especially, expectations and hopes in relation to the future. Applying Bourdieu’s relational approach, we investigate with survey data from Sweden how expectations of the future are linked to attitudes towards a transformational sustainable welfare agenda as well as to corresponding political actions and socio-economic factors.