Politics of Time

Who Owns the Future?  On the Power of Time and Defiant Political Hope | Lea Ypi in conversation with Zoran Terzić in an audiovisual Ideolab show

At every instance of our political debates we negotiate both our shared space (e.g as territory) and our shared time: what has been and what is yet to come.

Lea Ypi is in a unique position to share her insights on these matters: growing up in the last Stalinist state in Europe—Enver Hoxha’s Albania—she lived through the transition to democracy as a teenager. She is now a professor of political theory at the London School of Economics and one of the most influential voices from the political left in Europe.

Our talk focuses on aspects of the power of time that emerge from historical upheavals—including those in Ypi’s own personal history—that continue to shape the political debates of the present. Where communication breaks down, patterns of time emerge that live on in subsequent generations as recurring conflicts or persistent belief systems. Is it possible or even desirable to free oneself from these pressures? Are there historical examples from the past of how time has been appropriated, and is there something to learn from them? If so, can the experience of socialism serve as a useful reference point for the future—something that extends beyond dismissing this era as “lost” or “dead time”?  And how could movements that encompass a variety of different groups such as the Global East offer a vision for the future?

These questions tie in with the Futures East series presented at the Volksbühne, which explores how power colonizes not only spaces but also temporal horizons—whether as communism’s perpetual promise of salvation, as forever unfinished transition process to liberal democracies, or as transgenerational interpretive power at the level of nation. Looking beyond these promises, we ask: what does it mean to hope for something better or different in the future?

Lea Ypi will answer these and other questions asked in German in English.

References
Lea Ypi: Frei. Erwachsenwerden am Ende der Geschichte, Suhrkamp 2022; Lea Ypi: Aufrecht. Überleben im Zeitalter der Extreme, Suhrkamp 2025