Social Structure of the Future: Early Moments, Interstitial Spaces and Possible Histories

This symposium aims to connect emerging research on imagined futures and possibilities with historical and institutional approaches to field and industry emergence. To start a conversation about the social structures of the possible, we mobilize three distinct sets of cognate concepts and theory-method packages that have so far been used in relative isolation in management: First, the concepts of interstitial spaces, early moments, and experimental spaces; second the historically-informed notion of “paths not taken” and counterfactual analysis; and third, recent methodological developments such as topic modeling, socio- cultural network analysis, and qualitative comparative analysis. The Social Structure of The Future: Early Moments, Interstitial Spaces and The Possible Histories Presenter: Marta Villamor; Robert H. Smith School of Business, U. of Maryland Presenter: Fabian Prieto-Nañez; Technology and Society Virginia Tech Presenter: David A. Kirsch; U. of Maryland Presenter: Timothy Hannigan; U. of Alberta School of Business Presenter: Yunjung Pak; U. of Alberta Presenter: Valeria Giacomin; Bocconi U. Presenter: Marc Ventresca; U. of Oxford Presenter: Michele Scataglini; Saïd Business School U. of Oxford