DCRC Seminar: Speculative Geographies? Creative, participatory methods for envisioning hopeful, place-based futures.
We warmly invite you to the 2025-26 DCRC Seminar Series…a space for unpacking ideas, unlocking imagination and sparking conversations.
Founded in 2009, the Digital Cultures Research Centre is an open and collaborative network of critical thinkers and doers, whose work connects issues at the heart of society, culture, creativity and technology. We conduct transdisciplinary research, knowledge exchange, and teaching that contributes to a more just and sustainable society with a focus on people, policy, place and practice.
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Speculative Geographies? Creative, participatory methods for envisioning hopeful, place-based futures.
Dr. Liz Roberts
The concept of the future is resurfacing as a critical concern for researchers. The current socio- ecological polycrises reveal how modernist narratives that gave us certainty of progress and betterment in the future have ceased to hold true as the project/promise of neoliberal capitalism unravels. Only those with material capacity and influence can speculate on the future and produce the future geographical imaginaries available to us, notably at this present moment, global political powers and tech giants. The despair, uncertainty, resignation, and disempowerment felt by almost everyone else as a result requires an urgent response.
It is long argued that research must be done with not on people to ensure that it is inclusive and is able to meaningfully address the complex ‘wicked’ problems we face as a society; participatory and co-produced projects are increasing, with working alongside non-academic partners and communities becoming the norm. Creative and arts-led methods are a valuable tool to engage such communities, to reveal diverse forms of knowledge and empower participants. This paper proposes that creative, participatorymethods are a productive way to facilitate communities to envision alternative and hopeful place-based futures.
First, the paper will situate its methodological approach within the wider theoretical context of futures and speculative thought. Second, it will give four examples of creative, participatory ‘futuring’ methods delivered through three distinct projects: theNew Ways of Growing Together (NWOGT) project piloted a community-owned hydroponics (indoor growing) system and used ‘utopia sketching’ to envision a sustainable and regenerative model for its future; the Enhancing Blue-Green Infrastructure with Disabled People (Enhance BGI) project used an imagined future awards ceremony and breakfast radio talk show to role-play what accessible urban green space might become beyond the confines of status quo ‘access review’ requirements; and the Fair Creative Economies (FaCE) project used a ‘futures generator’ card deck and storyboarding to imagine a future where the frustrations, limitations and inequalities prevalent in the arts and culture sectors are reversed, creativity is valued and fairer creative work is possible. The paper concludes with a discussion of opportunities and considerations, and provides a care-oriented framework, for conducting this type of speculative work with communities.