Carl Boggs, a professor social science professor, coined this phrase to talk about how folks develop organizing methods and relationship structures that strive to embody the structures of the very society they are fighting for. I first heard of prefiguration in the context of prison abolition, and now I’m encountering it again as I read Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-state Forces (2010): “The internal dynamic of social struggle weaves social relations among the oppressed, as a means of ensuring survival in the first place, both materially and spiritually… eventually, society takes the form of a sea of ‘new’ social relations…” (p. 4).
I think it’s a profoundly hopeful way to think about the world, because it makes hopes and wishes that much more real. From the smallest things like, I wish that I could have friendly relationships with my neighbors we could help one another out with groceries, to broader things like, I wish instead of the military and police we could rely on mediation, deescalation, and non-violent emergency coalitions to provide care and coordination necessary to negotiate conflicts. I know in many ways, places like these probably do exist in some way, but I wish it to be everywhere, like the “sea”, because at the end of the day, I just want everyone to have what they need and to be ok.
our way home 