ArticleSocial studies of science2026
The Cruel Optimism of Plastics: Promissory Technologies and the Temporalities of Inaction.
Article in Social studies of science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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3 authors.
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Abstract
The plastic problem is a complex, multi-faceted issue that requires coordinated global action and systemic change to address. In this article, we investigate how what we call 'promissory technologies' affect people's capacities to understand the systemic changes necessary to significantly reduce global dependencies upon plastics. Engaging with Lauren Berlant's conceptualizations of 'cruel optimism' and 'technologies of patience' we delineate three overarching (and sometimes overlapping) forms of promissory technologies related to plastics and the temporalities associated with them: 1) technologies of patience, 2) technologies of deflection, and 3) technologies of salvation. We argue that these technologies enable unabated attachments to plastics even as the harms of these attachments become ever-more abundant and evident.
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