The capacity to imagine under uncertainty is unequally distributed

Evidence

Speculative imagination: a generative, creative (albeit unequally distributed) capacity to imagine under conditions of incalculable uncertainty; to bring forth new collective images of the future, which helps economies, societies, and polities navigate the present’s volatile conditions. A social force that is both materially bound (conditional on access to material resources, technologies, and capital) and idealist in nature (dependent on available symbolic resources, ideas, and shared myths). The speculative imagination seeks opportunities to engage constructively (but not to master or eliminate) life’s ambiguities and the future’s unknowable outcomes. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 9

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the chapter’s key enabling concept alongside homo speculans.
• XREF: Unequal distribution echoes social-capital theory’s insight that capacities and connections are activity-specific and structurally allocated.