The racial capitalocene and the 'not yet': a discourse for the politics of the possible

This contribution brings in conversation two theoretical perspectives - the position of political theorist Françoise Vergès and the utopian philosophy of Ernst Bloch - to frame a discourse reclaiming the critical potential of cultural studies, research and creative practices. The concepts of the ‘racial Capitalocene’ (Vergès, 2017) and the ‘not yet’ (Bloch 1986[1959]; 2000[1964]) are particularly relevant not only for a critical analysis of fashion, but also, and more broadly, for knowledge, research practices, and pedagogy, which are constantly at risk of becoming the latest cogs in the wheel of cognitive capitalism. In particular, the notion of a ‘racial Capitalocene’, which exposes those ‘naturalised inequalities, alienation, and violence inscribed in modernity’s strategic relations of power and production’ (Moore 2014), is crucial in counteracting oversimplifications offered by green capitalism, and helps re-contextualise current debates surrounding contemporary fashion. From this discourse, the racial Capitalocene emerges as an epistemological tool to reaffirm and reclaim the critical potential of cultural studies and a radical pedagogy based on a decolonisation of knowledge production. At present, when it seems easier to imagine a natural catastrophe, or even a great extinction, rather than the end of capitalism, the very ‘capacity to imagine that things could be different’, invoked by Ernst Bloch in The Principle of Hope (1986[1959]), presents itself as an ethical, cultural and epistemological urgency. The discussion focuses hence on the 'not yet' (Bloch 1986[1959]; 2000[1964]), and the 'politics of the possible' (Vergès 2017) as critical concepts, opening up possibilities to counteract dominant narratives, including the imperatives of cognitive capitalism, and imagine other futures, different than those suggested by the racial Capitalocene.