A Technique for Guiding Images: Imagining the Future After Capitalism

I reviewed dozens of books and reports touching on aspects of After Capitalism. Ultimately, I selected twenty-eight works for deeper analysis with an image analysis template that I crafted specifically for this project. It was significantly influenced by the ideas and materials from a summer elective class offered by Houston Foresight in 2016 called “Images of the Future,” developed and taught by Dr. Wendy Schultz. The article text is here.

Observations on Using the Template  

It should be noted that the author category may not be the original or only author of a concept. I typically captured the first work that caught his eye around a particular topic, which led to some unfortunate omissions. For instance on degrowth, I used Kallis et al.’s very good 2014 Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era volume as I came across it early, but this meant I didn’t include Hickel’s very good 2021 Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World.

The time horizons were only specified in only a few instances. This fits with my long experience in reviewing works about the future. Alas …

For key drivers, I used those developed during the After Capitalism research. If one were to use this template for a different topic, it would require developing drivers relevant to that topic or domain.   

As one might guess, the key ideas section was a challenging one in trying to boil down very rich works into a handful of key ideas was challenging, but it really helped facilitate the comparison of the concepts to one another.

In a mild surprise, the ideal and guiding values category was relatively easy to discern. Most of the authors were very passionate on the topic and tended to be very clear on why they were doing the work.

Upon reflection, it is not clear that a separate section was needed for emotional, aesthetic, and spiritual aspects, as this could be captured in the values section above.

The personal category, similar to time horizon and scope, was often neglected. The authors were typically, and understandably, most often writing from a macro-social perspective, so there was not as much attention to what it might be like for individuals to live in these futures.

The pathway or plan was touched on lightly since the focus of this work was on the images themselves rather than how to specifically achieve them. Nonetheless, many of the works did offer very useful advice. It may be that in today’s context there is so much emphasis on bottom-line practicality, that big picture thinking without a to-do list is ignored or does not get published.

Please use it

I intended for the template to be used beyond this project for other domains. Indeed, I found it very useful and hope others will use it for their work on developing and analyzing guiding images (please cite appropriately; full cite is Hines, A. (2025). A Technique for Guiding Images: Imagining the Future After Capitalism. In Placing the Future, Knowledge and Space (KNAS, volume 20), 35-54, published online May 7, 2025).  – Andy Hines