Overcoming Fatalism: Fostering New Notions of Temporality through Participatory Design Futuring

Contemporary crises are often viewed through a lens of despair, underpinned by the conviction that humanity is doomed and its fate sealed. Such views stem from and are reinforced by fatalism. Fatalism can be associated with a specific temporal perspective that understands time as a linear sequence of events that unfold inexorably and beyond one's control. This article adopts a temporal lens on fatalism and conceptualizes it according to three aspects: Time is seen as linear, predetermined, and monodimensional. A fatalist mindset can have various negative implications for individuals and societies, among others, undermining personal agency and discouraging collective efforts to address problems. Drawing insights from workshops conducted in Namibia and various European countries, this study explores whether participatory design futuring methods can be used to confront fatalism and promote a shift toward an understanding of temporality as pluriversal, nonlinear, and open.