Author: Iram Ghufran, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence (Deemed to be University), Delhi NCR
Email: iram.ghufran@gmail.com
Published: June 7, 2024
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.9.si.04
Citation: Ghufran, I. (2024). Immanent Futures, Quotidian Spaces: A View from Yiwu. IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(si). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.9.si.04
Abstract
The contemporary ecological condition has understandably precipitated diverse apocalyptic narratives that present a monumentally dismal account of the future. Against the backdrop of these overwhelmingly bleak and dystopic narratives, I ask a foundational question: How and who may speak of the future? My practice-based research in documentary film is an exploration of practice methodologies that respond to this question. In this paper I turn to Yiwu, a relatively small but cosmopolitan trading city in China as a site of “future making” (Montfort, 2017). The paper contends that Yiwu, a space replete with low-cost goods, can offer us a quotidian image of the future and serve as a site from which we can think about the creation of liveable concepts for an entangled future that may already have arrived.
Keywords
China, globalization, immanent futures, Silk Road, transnational trade, Yiwu