Social science fiction

Social science fiction or sociological science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, usually (but not necessarily) soft science fiction, concerned less with technology or space opera and more with speculation about society. Speculation about human behavior and interactions through an anthropological lens is also a key feature of many works.

Exploration of fictional societies is a significant aspect of social science fiction, allowing it to make predictions (The Time Machine, 1895; The Final Circle of Paradise, 1965), offer precautionary warnings (Brave New World, 1932; Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949; Childhood's End, Fahrenheit 451, 1953), to criticize the contemporary world (Gulliver's Travels, 1726; the works of Alexander Gromov, 1995–present), to present solutions to social ills (Walden Two, Freedom™), to portray alternative societies (World of the Noon), to share utopias (William Morris's News from Nowhere), and to examine the implications of ethical principles, as for example in the works of Sergei Lukyanenko. More contemporary examples include The Lobster (2015), directed by Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, and The Platform (2019).

Social fiction is a broad term to describe any work of speculative fiction that features social commentary (as opposed to, say, hypothetical technology) in the foreground. Social science fiction is a subgenre thereof, where social commentary (cultural or political) takes place in a sci-fi universe. Utopian and dystopian fiction is a classic, polarized genre of social science fiction, although most works of science fiction can be interpreted as having social commentary of some kind or other as an important feature. It is not uncommon, therefore, for a sci-fi work to be labeled as social sci-fi as well as numerous other categories.