Richard Slaughter has argued for many years that we face a ‘civilisational crisis’, particularly in the context of climate change and the environment. Slaughter felt that traditional futures methods were too superficial and lacking in depth to address the civilisational challenge ahead of us. He provided frameworks and concepts to deepen futures methods and strategies and to build social foresight capacity. His significant practical contribution was the establishment of the Australian Foresight Institute and postgraduate studies at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. It is suggested that the foresight field in Australia needs to reestablish supportive structures such as these and take steps to obtain social and professional legitimation in order to promote an advanced futures discourse to take us toward better futures.

理查德·斯劳特多年来一直认为我们面临着“文明危机”，尤其是在气候变化和环境的背景下。Slaughter 认为传统的未来方法过于肤浅，缺乏深度，无法应对我们面前的文明挑战。他提供了框架和概念来深化未来的方法和战略，并建立社会预见能力。他的重大实际贡献是在墨尔本斯威本科技大学建立澳大利亚前瞻研究所和研究生课程。建议澳大利亚的前瞻领域需要重新建立此类支持结构，并采取措施获得社会和专业合法性，以促进先进的未来话语，带我们走向更美好的未来。