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This article contributes to 'sociologies of the future' by discussing the concept of 'futurelessness'. I provide a conceptual elaboration of what is meant by 'futurelessness', beginning with its use in the psychological literature of the 1980s concerned with the effect of a constant threat of nuclear war. I argue that this concept is of value to ongoing sociological debates about the relationship between imagined futures, power and social change. I further discuss the extent to which 'futurelessness' is a particular mode of relating to and feeling about the future that is characteristic of contemporary European societies. I discuss how this 'futurelessness' must be understood in relation to political and cultural developments of the past 50 years and consider its significance for sociological debates about contemporary futurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of human activities in outer space is likely to bring new economic, social, and political dilemmas in the next 50 to 100 years. Future governance will have to increasingly juggle earth-space social justice, resource trade-offs, and environmental sustainability issues. This poses new challenges to the governance of global commons, i.e. whether existing studies are fit to address commons in a global context and whether the governance of outer space commons (dis)integrates with Earth-bound sustainability governance. To explore these questions, this study uses scenario-building techniques to generate alternative future scenarios via a workshop conducted during the 2022 Commons in Space conference. We derived four future scenarios based on two major contextual conditions: (i) the degree of equity in resource distribution in space, and (ii) the degree of integration with Earth-bound sustainability, more specifically Earth system governance. The four alternative scenarios are (i) Space Cartel in which the use of space resources becomes dominated by the rich and powerful; (ii) Earth-centric Gold Rush in which the current 'business as usual' continues; (iii) Open Space (also Space Utopia) in which open access of space resources leads to thriving developments in space at the expense of sustainability on Earth; and finally, (iv) Earth-Space Sustainability in which challenges on Earth and in space are addressed through an integrative governance model. Based on the challenges identified from these scenarios, we discuss specific as well as cross-cutting implications for policy and governance to better address commons in space in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the routine use of race and ethnicity in the context of applied population genetics, which includes research in genetic epidemiology into the causes of common, complex diseases and in pharmacogenetics--the study of the genetic basis of how people respond to pharmaceuticals. It investigates how categories of 'whiteness' are operationalized in everyday scientific practice. It reviews the critique of the presumed homogeneity, invisibility and 'common-sense' status of whiteness in the epidemiological and clinical literature, and draws on qualitative interviews conducted with twenty-eight UK-based researchers working in the areas of genetic epidemiology and pharmacogenetics. The study explores how researchers justify the inclusion of white/Caucasians in studies and the exclusion of other ethnic groups, operationalize white/Caucasian as a category by which volunteers or patients are selected in and out of studies, and show how genetic evidence can also challenge researchers' assumptions and problematize their everyday use of categories such as white/Caucasian. Keywords: Population genetics; whiteness; ethnicity; ancestry; race; science.

Much envisaging of the future is inherently ableist. Euro-American cultural imaginaries traditionally have emphasised the narrative of medical progress, assuming the end of impairment. Disability is a frequent trope for and in dystopias, whereas more positive or progressive futures ignore the presence and aspirations of disabled people who are frequently excluded from individual and collective endeavours to articulate and shape the future. They are presumed to be in effect ‘futureless’, lacking a future of value, leaving an unoccupied space for existing inequalities and privileges to flourish. This paper brings disability studies and sociology of futures into dialogue and makes the case for creating crip space(s) within sociologies of the future. Foregrounding disability can trouble and enrich sociological engagements with futurity, while analytic perspectives from sociology of futures can inform scholarship in disability studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have been investing in improving human spaceflight capabilities through the development of reusable rockets to greatly reduce the cost of orbital launches. One such entrepreneur is the controversial Elon Musk who projects a techno-optimistic vision of the future in which humans live on other planets, enabled by his company's technologies. This is a technologically utopian and libertarian vision that has implications for ongoing contestations about the future of Earth and humanity. For Musk and his investors and supporters, their vision is about how human action in outer space will transform things 'down here', bringing about positive social change. While many celebrate such business leaders of Silicon Valley, critical voices challenge their evasion of current global challenges. Musk's techno-optimistic visions can be illuminated by the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries that draws attention to how public debates about science and technology also often evoke feelings of excitement, adventure, disappointment and anxiety. Science fiction narratives and digital simulations play an important role in conveying to multiple publics the desirability and feasibility of such imagined futures. However, although exciting in ambition and design, Silicon Valley visions of outer space futures offer little to the flourishing of humans and the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this issue of PLoS Medicine, Lundy Braun and colleagues from the Race, Medicine, and Science Workshop discuss "the trouble with race" [1]. They argue that the heterogeneity of racial [...]