Temporal Politics: Contested Pasts, Uncertain Futures

Adrian Little demonstrates the ways in which different conceptions of past, present and future contribute to the nature of political conflict in the world today. Reacting against narratives of political disillusionment and apathy, he focuses on how a new understanding of political temporality can inform our approach to political problems. Little develops a theory of temporality focused on material politics. His argument is formed around three major cases in which the nature of past, present and future is contested: Indigenous politics in settler colonies, the politics of bordering and migration and the debates over the future of democracy. He shows how to rethink ways in which we can act on intractable issues in politics beyond philosophical analysis. In doing so he brings together a theory of temporality with a model of political action derived from process philosophy to reinvigorate temporal understandings of the problems that political actors face.