A new Elizabethan age: the advanced research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and the nostalgic politics of Anglofuturism
A new Elizabethan age: the advanced research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and the nostalgic politics of Anglofuturism
Anglofuturism promises to deliver Britain from an age of crisis into one of hope, creativity, and technological revolution. This article uses the United Kingdom’s 2023 creation of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) as a window into Anglofuturism’s role in post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’. Drawing on parliamentary debates and reports about ARIA’s creation, it shows how forward-looking proposals for reinvigorating Britain’s ‘global science superpower’ status were underwritten by nostalgias for 16th-century Elizabethan England and mid-20th-century America – ‘modern’ eras allegedly founded on the individual brilliance and heroic exploration of ‘great men’. It challenges conventional understandings of nostalgia as simply melancholic and backward-looking, showing how the emotion also shapes political visions of a bright and hopeful future. However, the article also argues that forward-looking nostalgias can have a dark side. This becomes apparent when we locate Anglofuturism within broader far-right constellations interested in conventionally nostalgic, eugenicist methods of propelling the nation.
empire, future studies, nostalgia, science, technology
Melhuish, Francesca
c0ab0898-d938-4f4e-bca9-af48815d1f69
Melhuish, Francesca
c0ab0898-d938-4f4e-bca9-af48815d1f69
Melhuish, Francesca
(2025)
A new Elizabethan age: the advanced research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and the nostalgic politics of Anglofuturism.
Politics, [02633957251358327].
(doi:10.1177/02633957251358327).
Abstract
Anglofuturism promises to deliver Britain from an age of crisis into one of hope, creativity, and technological revolution. This article uses the United Kingdom’s 2023 creation of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) as a window into Anglofuturism’s role in post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’. Drawing on parliamentary debates and reports about ARIA’s creation, it shows how forward-looking proposals for reinvigorating Britain’s ‘global science superpower’ status were underwritten by nostalgias for 16th-century Elizabethan England and mid-20th-century America – ‘modern’ eras allegedly founded on the individual brilliance and heroic exploration of ‘great men’. It challenges conventional understandings of nostalgia as simply melancholic and backward-looking, showing how the emotion also shapes political visions of a bright and hopeful future. However, the article also argues that forward-looking nostalgias can have a dark side. This becomes apparent when we locate Anglofuturism within broader far-right constellations interested in conventionally nostalgic, eugenicist methods of propelling the nation.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 27 July 2025
Keywords:
empire, future studies, nostalgia, science, technology
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Local EPrints ID: 503460
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503460
PURE UUID: 2ebd3088-42c0-4a72-890e-d3e2f8e27d0c
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Date deposited: 01 Aug 2025 16:38
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:44
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Author:
Francesca Melhuish
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