Maintaining the future through recurrent crises

Abstract

Einar, a 94-year-old Faroese man who has always resided on the island of Suðuroy, has lived through several societal crises. In this article, I explore his experiences of living through three of them, highlighting his ability to maintain an imagination of in the future and detailing how crises interact over time. I propose that Einar’s upbringing in the cycles of crisis characterising fishery, combined with other factors, led him to develop a particular engagement with the future that mitigated crisis-induced uncertainties. Previous crises served as resources to address current calamities, as such experiences taught Einar that, in even the direst situations, the future will eventually improve. However, Einar temporarily sight of the future when the Faroese fishery industry imploded in the 1990s. Einar questioned whether sufficient resources existed to allow him and the village to recover. The 1990s crisis momentarily gained a personal character; however, due to his age, stable socioeconomic position, and close social and affective ties to the people on Suðuroy, he reaffirmed his decision to stay on the island. Einar’s story showcases the importance of considering people’s experiences and unique positions amidst societal crises—be they temporary, slow, recurrent, or chronic, but also of studying experiences of time. Numerous factors constitute the membrane regulating when societal crises become personal. Crises cannot be understood as singular or isolated events. Instead, crises must be comprehended through their cumulations and entanglements, which involve people’s imagination of the future in unpredictable ways.