“But not now” –

Outlines of a Critique of Possibilist Reason

Abstract

This article examines the significance and ambiguity of the concept of possibility, drawing on the book La Perspective du Possible by Haud Guéguen and Laurent Jeanpierre (Guéguen and Jeanpierre 2022). I explore two theories where the concept of possibility is central but that are not explicitly addressed in Guéguen and Jeanpierre’s work: the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and Michel Foucault’s analytics of power. These theoretical perspectives are then linked to current debates in cultural anthropology and Science and Technology Studies, highlighting the particular strengths of ethnographic research for exploring potential futures. By engaging with programmatic reflections on an ‘Anthropology of the Future’ (Bryant and Knight 2019) or on ‘Future as Cultural Fact’ (Appadurai 2013), alongside methodological approaches to experimental research formats, I propose a critical concept of possibility that integrates relational, performative, and experimental dimensions.