Doubting gender. Or why it is best to leave certain questions unanswered

Kristin Hübner, is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick.

Her piece ‘Doubting gender. Or why it is best to leave certain questions unanswered’ finished in the top 10 of the ESRC’s writing competition, The World in 2065– in collaboration with academic publishers, SAGE.  

“Any social scientist who tries to predict the future should be regarded with healthy distrust”, I was told by my professor during one of my first sociology lectures which, ironically, dealt with the subject of social change. If this quote is to be believed, then the following paragraphs can only be understood as a work of fiction. Confronted with the choice between dystopia and utopia I chose the latter, believing and hoping that constructions of reality can eventually create a tangible reality.

One Morning in 2065…

Matjaz Vidmar is a postgraduate research student in The Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation; part of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies Subject Group in the School of Social and Political Science and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group of Business School; at The University of Edinburgh

His main area of research is acceleration of business incubation and development of Space Sector in the UK and specifically in Scotland.

His piece ‘One Morning in 2065…’ finished in the top 10 of the ESRC’s writing competition, The World in 2065– in collaboration with academic publishers, SAGE.  You can read it below:

One Morning in 2065…

‘Beep, beep, beep…The alarm goes off ringing – my personal assistant, Thor, is scheduled to wake me up as ever for 7.30am. Would be easy to hit the red button now, kill Thor off, and enjoy some more peaceful slumber next to my wife, but I knew it was not to be.’

People will soon be at the very heart of lawmaking

Dr Louise Thompson is a lecturer in British Politics at the University of Surrey. 
Her research focuses on the UK Parliament and particularly looks at parliamentary committees, the legislative process and public engagement with Parliament and the political process. Her wider research interests are in legislative studies, British politics and constitutional reform.

Her piece ‘People will soon be at the very heart of lawmaking’ finished in the top 10 of the ESRC’s writing competition, The World in 2065– in collaboration with academic publishers, SAGE.  You can read it below:

People will soon be at the very heart of lawmaking

It’s 1^st March 2065. Jenny Brown is tucking her son into bed and thinking about tackling that pile of ironing that’s been sitting around all week. Her iPhone beeps and alerts her to amendment 52 of the Children Bill which has just been proposed by an MP in the House of Commons.

City Inc

James Fletcher is a Social Science, Health and Medicine research student at King’s College London. He saw off competition from some 70 entrants to win the ESRC’s writing competition, The World in 2065 – in collaboration with academic publishers, SAGE. 

The competition, which marked the anniversaries of the ESRC and SAGE, asked PhD students to creatively write about their vision of 50 years from now.

Read James’ winning article, City Inc, below:

A look into the future

Susan Cassell is Policy Manager for Data and Resources at ESRC. She provides support for phase 1 of the ESRC’s investment in Big Data: the Administrative Data Research Network and is also the case officer for two Doctoral Training Centres. She is involved with various working groups across the ESRC.  

I’ve just spent half a day with ESRC colleagues looking through the entries to the ESRC-SAGE Writing Competition: The World in 2065.  The aim of the competition was to provide a platform for young academics to share their enthusiasm and vision for social science over the next 50 years, by inviting entrants to answer the question, ‘How will your research or discipline change the world by 2065?’. There were 77 entries to review, each written by an ESRC-funded doctoral student. I was struck by the variety – each a unique take on what social science research will have contributed to the world by 2065. Some authors unleashed their creativity and imagined a future in 2065 that seems more science fiction than fact. Not that any of us know for sure what the future holds.