Aoki, Eric, authorOtt, Brian L., authorWestern States Communication Association, publisher2007-01-032007-01-032001Ott, Brian L. and Eric Aoki, Popular Imagination and Identity Politics: Reading the Future in Star Trek: Next Generation. Western Journal of Communication 65, no. 4 (Fall 2001): 392-415.http://hdl.handle.net/10217/60076Brian Ott was a professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Colorado State University.Includes bibliographical references (pages 412-415).Through an analysis of the popular syndicated television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, this essay begins to theorize the relationship between collective visions of the future and the identity politics of the present. Focusing on the tension between the show's utopian rhetoric of the future and its representational practices with regard to race, gender, and sexuality, it is argued that The Next Generation invites audiences to participate in a shared sense of the future that constrains human agency and (re)produces the current cultural hegemony with regard to identity politics. The closing section calls for critics to continue politicizing mediated images that appeal to popular imagination and to develop and implement a pedagogical practice of counter-imagination.born digitalarticleseng©2001 Western States Communication Association.Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.identity politicsfutureU.S. popular cultureimaginationutopian discourseText