Time & Society 2014, Vol. 23(3) 358–379 ! The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0961463X11431651 tas.sagepub.com Article The ideology of sustainability and the globalization of a future Joa ˜o Afonso Baptista University of Hamburg, Germany Abstract Through its moving frontiers, the ideology of sustainability prescribes or chal- lenges orderings in the imaginary of societies. Accordingly, sustainability leads to obvious struggles between different systems of representations worldwide, and temporal orderliness is at the core of these battles. In this article, I focus on the future. Domesticating the future by sustainability is a central element, in parti- cular, of the cultural confrontation between the ‘West and the Rest’. Moreover, the ideology of sustainability proves to be self-contradictory: on one side pro- motes cultural diversity, but on the other side operates only under a singular and homogeneous construct of the future. Keywords Sustainability, future, development, imaginaries, representations Introduction Environmentalists demand sustainable ecosystems. Aid institutions demand sustainable development. Citizens demand sustainable lifestyles. Urban populations demand sustainable cities. Workers demand sustainable jobs. Entrepreneurs demand sustainable empowerment. Customers demand sustainable products. Students demand sustainable careers. A particular set of demands are being made by many, and increasingly have taken root everywhere: from urban to rural settings, from consumers to producers, from professors to students, from young activists to experienced Corresponding author: Joa ˜o Afonso Baptista, University of Hamburg, Institut fu ¨r Ethnologie, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Hamburg 20146, Germany. Email: joao.baptista@uni-hamburg.de by guest on November 2, 2014 tas.sagepub.com Downloaded from