Motivated by concerns over the problems and tensions of the present, Herbert Gans makes the case for the study of the future—that is, how individuals and institutions imagine and construct future lives and worlds. Understanding future constructions, and their differences across the boundaries of class, gender, race, generation, religion, and other social markers, provides a window into conflicts of the present and new possibilities for engaging them.
Herbert J. Gans
Herbert J. Gans is the Robert S. Lynd Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Columbia, the author of a dozen books, and editor of a few more. He holds an MA in social sciences from the University of Chicago (1950) and a PhD in city and social planning from the University of Pennsylvania (1957). Professor Gans also served as the 78th president of the American Sociological Association.