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A forward-looking approach to climate change and the risk of societal collapse Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Daniel Steel, Charly Phillips, Amanda Giang, Kian Mintz-Woo
This article proposes a forward-looking approach to studying societal collapse risks related to climate change. Such an approach should indicate how to study emerging collapse risks and suggest strategies for adapting to them. Our approach is based on three postulates that facilitate a forward-looking approach: (1) collapse, if it occurred, would be a lengthy process rather than an abrupt event; (2)
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Dare to imagine. Explorative scenarios for re-shaping human-nature relationships in an inner periphery in the Italian Apennines Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Marco Mareggi, Luca Lazzarini
The article investigates the relationship between planning and future by presenting and discussing the application of the scenario-making approach to an inner periphery in the Italian Northern Appennine, the semi-abandoned village of Ebbio, in the province of Piacenza. Inner peripheries are commonly described as the territories that have “no future”, namely those where the idea of the future is most
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Enhancing the horizon scanning utility of futures-oriented systematic and scoping reviews Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Eray Arda Akartuna, Shane D. Johnson, Amy Thornton
We propose modifications for scoping (and by extension systematic) review methodologies to improve their contribution to horizon scanning exercises. As a means of systematically collecting, coding and synthesising literature, we argue that scoping reviews are ideal for conducting initial environmental scans of a topic of interest, trend analyses and scenario developments. To demonstrate this utility
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Public participation in futuring: A systematic literature review Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Laura Barendregt, Roy Bendor, Bregje F. van Eekelen
Against the background of continuous calls to democratize futures research and practice, this paper reports the results of a systematic literature review of the involvement of publics in participatory futuring processes. The paper considers three key research questions: Who participates in public futuring processes? Why are publics included in these processes? And what roles do they occupy? By considering
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What do we want from a sociology of the future?: Exploring the epistemological needs of an emerging field Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Jordan McKenzie
The aim of this article is to examine the epistemological conditions of a sociology of the future. This article offers three conditions for a grounded sociology of the future: 1) It must be more than a study of utopia and dystopia, 2) It must be able to think of the future as rather than , 3) It requires an accessible understanding of time as it pertains to emotion, imagination and reason. There are
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Climate futures and development pathways: A journey from terrorism to tourism in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Muhammad Rafay Muzamil, Bryan Boruff, Babar Shahbaz, Nasir Abbas Khan, Rao Sabir Sattar, Muhammad Hafeez
Achieving equitable development that supports climate mitigation in an uncertain future remains a daunting task, particularly for post-conflict societies. In this paper, we present results from a local stakeholder participatory scenario workshop investigating emerging priorities for anticipatory action, with respect to future climate impacts, in the vulnerable conflict-affected Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province
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The multi-dimensionality of value landscapes Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Matthias Kaiser
Post-normal science (PNS) is arguably an extension of the framing of knowledge production and use which includes the close linkage of facts and values. The paper argues that PNS is an fundamentally ethical perspective on scientific knowledge, which not only highlights uncertainties, but also the value dimensions of targeting the inherently complex world of ours. Analytically the notion of (social,
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Visual Literacy as a tool to explore what lays behind and beyond our anticipations Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Vicky Karaiskou
Visual Literacy enriches the field of anticipatory assumptions and Futures Literacy by taking into account basic biological premises of our brains and minds related to images. It explores why our individual and public spheres act as sources of authority conditioning assumed realities and ‘staging’ a limited world in our consciousness. The study unravels where our perceptions originate from, their ramifications
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Bringing energy futures to life: Anticipatory household storylines as possible energy futures Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-22 Kari Dahlgren, Fareed Kaviani, Yolande Strengers, Sarah Pink, Hannah Korsmeyer
This article introduces a new methodology developed through the Digital Energy Futures project, which created scenarios of relevance to Australia’s energy sector for the years 2030 and 2050 that are informed by in-depth qualitative research with households. The article focuses on the method for developing narrative household storylines within energy scenarios and their role illustrating the social
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Literary Futures: Harnessing Fiction for Futures Work Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Rebecca Braun, Orla Lehane, Maria Roca Lizarazu
Literary Futures is an approach to futures work that draws on foundational works of world literature and literary analysis to engage creatively in futures thinking. This paper details the Literary Futures method, from its conceptual development to its practical application in a series of workshops. Through an analysis of the experiences of over 130 Literary Futures workshop participants, we highlight
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Post-Normal Modelling in Ecological Economics: An Emergent Approach Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-18 Alberto Fragio, Óscar Carpintero
This article reviews the recent contributions of Post-normal modelling in ecological economics and its relevance to the general epistemology of scientific models. It focuses, in particular, on the understanding of the process and consequences of modelling offered by ecological-economic modellers, especially by those authors linked to the philosophy of Post-normal science. We point out the emergence
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Affecting and spatializing future(s) among young entrepreneurs in the South Italy Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-17 Letteria G. Fassari, Massimo Blandini
Predominantly set within the sociological framework, this essay focuses on the intersection dynamics between the construction of the future and the constitution of space in the case of young entrepreneurs from southern Italy. The analysis is based on thirty biographies of young people from three major regions of southern Italy: Calabria, Campania and Sardinia. For the most part, these young people
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Methods to imagine transformative futures. An integrative literature review. Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-15 Sanna Ketonen-Oksi, Minna Vigren
The scope of planetary crisis has led to calls for urgent, far-reaching, and unprecedented transformations of systems and cultures. To achieve these fundamental changes, creative and participatory methods are needed to imagine and engage with alternatives. This integrative literature review, consisting of a detailed analysis of 39 articles, provides a synthesis of methods and the identification of
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Peace and reparations in legal drug markets in Colombia Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Estefanía Ciro, Mary Ryder, Sammy Sánchez
Using the ‘war on drugs’ in Colombia as its case study, this paper reflects on the recent findings and recommendations of Colombia’s Truth Commission to make a case for a transformative approach to end ongoing cycles of drugs-related violence. In Colombia, the armed conflict and repressive prohibitionist drug policies are deeply entangled, and violence is ongoing. A peaceful future, we contend, requires
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The call of nature. Three post-pandemic scenarios about remote working in Milan Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-13 Marco Biagetti, Giuseppe Croce, Ilaria Mariotti, Federica Rossi, Sergio Scicchitano
In recent years remote working (RW) arrangements have increased in many countries, mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also intensified the need for humans to live closer to nature. Within this context, the paper aims to discuss three possible future scenarios for the spread of RW by 2050, and how this could affect residential choices, people's relationship with the natural environment
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A scoping study of crime facilitated by the metaverse Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-12 Juliana Gómez-Quintero, Shane D. Johnson, Hervé Borrion, Samantha Lundrigan
The metaverse is an emerging convergence of technologies (e.g., virtual reality and blockchains) that enables users to experience mixed/extended realities for various legitimate purposes (e.g., gaming, tourism, manufacturing and education). Unfortunately, the crime and security implications of emerging technologies are often overlooked. To anticipate crimes that the metaverse might facilitate, we report
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Climate change and energy transition: Perceptions of emergency, responsibility, and the future imaginaries of Manitoban unionized workers Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-08 M, a, r, k, , H, u, d, s, o, n
This paper explores the perceptions and future imaginaries of a group of union members in Manitoba, Canada, concerning climate change, energy transition, and the roles of unions and workers in climate politics. Based on interviews with 30 rank and file workers carried out through the winter of 2020, the results suggest some starting points for a more active engagement between the labour movement and
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A message board from the future: Signals of mutual aid futures from U.S. based organizers during COVID-19 Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-02-03 Annie Zean Dunbar, Madi Boyett, Danielle Maude Littman, Kimberly Bender, Colleen Cummings Melton, Tara Milligan, Kate Saavedra
Foresight practice can help societies creatively imagine and prepare for possible futures. The current qualitative study uses a foresight lens to consider the ways communities in the Western United States use mutual aid as a collective care strategy and preparative tool to address social justice challenges. Using Dator’s (2009) four futures framework, this study constructed four future scenarios through
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Forty years in the making: A systematic review of the megatrends literature Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-26 Claire K. Naughtin, Emma Schleiger, Alexandra Bratanova, Andrew Terhorst, Stefan Hajkowicz
Four decades ago, the concept of megatrends was introduced by John Naisbitt (1929–2021). The popular tool has since been adopted by researchers, consultants, private enterprises and governments to explore long-term futures across a diverse range of regions, industries and socioeconomic domains. The widespread use of megatrends has led to variability in how the concept is applied and a lack of scientific
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Changes in the organizational field of Libraries in 2030 Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-26 Bertrand Pauget, Jean-Michel Tobelem, Corinne Grenier
The Knowledge Economy is sustained by a large and varied range of type of libraries (public-state or university library, private library…) whose missions and models of delivering services are increasingly challenging due to change in readings habits since many years, and more recently by the Covid-19 crisis. In such context, we look at this sector as an organizational field whose future we question
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Benefits or concerns of AI: A multistakeholder responsibility Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 S, o, m, e, s, h, , S, h, a, r, m, a
This article provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of academic research on benefits and concerns of artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life. Findings from the literature presented in this article offer useful guidance for the stakeholders who are looking into establishing governance practices for responsible artificial intelligence (AI) so that the future of our smart societies
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A methodological path to foster inner peripheries’ sustainable and resilient futures: A research experience from Southern Italy Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Adriana Galderisi, Giada Limongi
The future of inner peripheries, suffering a demographic decline (ESPON, 2017) that threatens the survival of their relevant environmental and cultural heritage, represents an important challenge for the whole of Europe. The urgency to address some long-lasting problems affecting inner peripheries (depopulation, population ageing, limited accessibility, economic marginality) has been recognized and
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Analytical categories to describe imaginations about the collective futures: From theory to linguistics to computational analysis Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Julian “Iñaki” Goñi, Maria Paz Raveau, Claudio Fuentes Bravo
Anticipation of collective futures has been described as one of the most critical challenges of contemporary societies. Imaginations or images of the collective future are a form of narrative and social activity that involves many complex political, psychological and cultural nuances that pose significant challenges in terms of assessment. In this article, we propose six analytical categories to describe
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A brave old world: The nuanced combination of state-national retrotopia and trans-national populism by an assembled radical-right family Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Christian Lamour
The current management of global crises is coordinated by international and multilateral organizations. However, it is contested by the Western radical right, which is successfully attracting a growing proportion of the citizenry. Its electoral-winning discourse has consisted of promoting a state-national retrotopia, meaning the definition of a future based on a return to the ‘golden age’ of sovereign
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Anticipating emerging medical technologies: The start of an international horizon scanning tool for medical devices Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Renee Else Michels, Martinus Bertram de Graaff, Payam Abrishami, Diana Maria Johanna Delnoij
The governance of innovative medical technologies is fraught with uncertainties. Responsible governing bodies prepare for future advances by engaging in anticipatory practices aimed at knowing and acting earlier-on, but little is known about such work. We examine an anticipatory practice of a multinational, mostly European horizon scanning collaboration, drawing on the analytical framework of anticipatory
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Transformative or incumbent futures? How the future of mobility is imagined in sustainability transitions research Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Tom Hawxwell, Abe Hendriks, Philipp Späth
How actors relate to the future has long been considered important in research on the governance of transformations towards sustainability. Recent contributions have explored the politics at play in the ‘making’ of futures and the forming of collective expectations. Building on the concept of socio-material incumbency and integrating academic discussions which appreciate the politics of future-making
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Publics and counter-publics of net-zero Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Jose Maria Valenzuela, Javier Lezaun
The proliferation of pledges to reach net-zero emissions has revealed a wide range of understandings of what such a pledge entails. The lack of international standards to define decarbonisation pathways and the many kinds of speculative offsets available for net-zero calculations have generated a multiplication of public commitments not tethered to any specific mechanism of accountability. Many have
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"We are our own virus": Exploring a future where we might eat each other Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Savannah Mandel
Author Agustina Bazterrica offers a glimpse into a speculative future where humans are harvested for meat by other humans in her 2020 publication Tender is the Flesh. Drawing on a cultural history of the evolution of bioethical regulations, this article debates how easily a future such as the one Bazterrica describes might come to be. Using Tender is the Flesh as a foundation to explore the fragility
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Institutional rules for the up-take of regulatory experiments: A comparative case study Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2024-01-06 Daniel Feser, Simon Winkler-Portmann, Thore Sören Bischoff, Dierk Bauknecht, Kilian Bizer, Martin Führ, Dirk Arne Heyen, Till Proeger, Kaja von der Leyen, Moritz Vogel
Experiments are an important governance instrument for fostering learning between actors, improving governance, and managing transition pathways for sustainable development. However, determinants of the up-take of the result of experiments are underexplored in the transition experimentation literature. Consequently, we explore the role of experimental design and institutions in this up-take. This paper
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Scenarios of sustainable fodder production in the conflict-affected Kerio Valley of Kenya Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-30 Redempter Mutinda, Paul Kimurto, Michael Hauser
Communities that keep livestock depend on forages. Understanding the potential futures of livestock forages in regions affected by climate change and resource conflict is critical for climate security and peace. However, often there is limited data on future fodder developments and their drivers. This article presents the results of a scenario development process to identify livestock forage options
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What’s next in the healthcare system? The contribution of digital innovation in achieving patient-centricity Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-29 Martina Toni, Giovanni Mattia, Carlo Alberto Pratesi
The pressure on the healthcare system due to the pandemic situation has exacerbated its main criticalities in terms of fragmentation, data management and lack of interconnections. There is a need to rethink the health system’s management and monitoring in a patient-centric view, in order to meet the growing demand due to extension of life expectancy and increase in chronic diseases. Innovation in technology
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Laying the foundation for a second counterculture: A psychology of loving Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Ernst P. Graamans
In light of the many wicked problems currently facing humanity this paper calls for futurists and psychologists to join forces in the envisionment and enactment of more sustainable futures. It is argued that large scale spirito-psychological transformation, with an emphasis on loving as embodied and embedded practice, is key to actually meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Inspired
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Uncovering power asymmetries in North-South research collaborations – An example from sustainability research in Tanzania Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-26 Maria Fresia Choquez-Millan, Charlotte Luise Lechtape, Katharina Löhr, Barbara Schröter, Frieder Graef
North - South collaboration between scientists and collaborators is increasingly prominent and promoted in research. This study examines power dynamics within a North-South research collaboration project conducted between institutions in Tanzania and Germany. The research design is guided by postcolonial considerations of knowledge production and seeks to amplify underrepresented voices from the South
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Mobility business models toward a digital tomorrow: Challenges for automotive manufacturers Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-25 Hugo Pérez-Moure, Jesús F. Lampón, Pablo Cabanelas
The development of digital business models is impacting the traditional value chain for mobility, implying changes as well as future challenges for automotive manufacturers. Taking a Global Value Chain approach, this work analyses the recent evolution, short-term direction, and medium- to long-term future vision of the adoption of digital mobility business models by automotive manufacturers. Results
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Who wants a reparative future? Social mobility beliefs, and young South African’s narrative positioning within the historic moral community Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-22 Natasha Robinson
This paper explores how young South Africans think about the need for a reparative future through a consideration of their relationship to South Africa’s historic moral community. By historic moral community I draw on MacIntyre (2007), Sandel (2009), and Shotwell’s (2016) work to refer to the network of those from whom we inherit, and to whom we owe, an obligation – past, present, and future. This
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Futures for the uncommitted? Translating net-zero to pension savers Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-21 Linda Soneryd
This study explores the ambivalent futures inherent in pension savings. Pension funds aim to create safe economic futures for an ageing population, at the same time as the funds still contain assets in oil and other fossil fuels. The focus in this paper is on how commitments to net-zero emission targets are translated by pension and insurance companies to the public and individual pension savers. The
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Applying drama methods in foresight: Supporting futures agency and creating in-depth futures knowing Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-20 Jouko Myllyoja
This article observes and constructs possibilities that drama methods may have for futures studies. By describing a few selected techniques from drama workshops, the article demonstrates how applied drama can function as a form of futures workshopping. Findings are constructed through two research paths or schemas. The first schema, supporting futures agency, explores how drama methods can support
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Ordering the past, envisioning future(s): How review articles in synthetic biology make use of heterogeneous expectations Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Clemens Blümel
This article deals with expectation dynamics in the field of synthetic biology. The article draws on scholarly review articles as the main material, complemented by expert interviews conducted with scholars from the field. The aim is to explore how expectations change over time and how they are used to justify and move the field. Drawing from conceptual advances of the sociology of expectations, I
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Foresight through developing shared mental models: The case of Triple Access Planning Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Daniela Paddeu, Glenn Lyons
Planning for the future involves making sense of the present and examining possible changes in key factors that can influence the future. Actors rely upon mental models of the system that planning addresses: their simplified interpretations of the makeup of system elements and element interactions that together determine how the system works. It follows that a helpful foundation for strong planning
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Digital business foresight: Keyword-based analysis and CorEx topic modeling Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-14 Levan Bzhalava, Jari Kaivo-oja, Sohaib S. Hassan
While previous research develops big data tools to identify weak signals of technological and business changes, we lack an understanding of how to link weak signals with new business concepts and use them to evaluate performance of startups in an automated way. To address this research gap, we analyze the business description of digital companies extracted from the CrunchBase metadata and use a keyword-based
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Feeling the future: An exploration into studying youth futures Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Giuliana Mandich, Caterina Satta, Valentina Cuzzocrea
The aim of this paper is to offer a contribution in the search for appropriate ways to disentangle the intangibility of the future – especially amongst young people, who have been hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. It draws on a large research project which investigates how young people in several Italian cities look at their futures ([Mapping youth future]). Theoretically, we refer to
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Navigating the paradox of repair: Indigenous genocide and public education in Minnesota and Manitoba Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-12 Alejandro Baer, George D. Dalbo, Jillian LaBranche
This paper examines how educational institutions and individual educators in Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota, United States (US), understand and enact reparation in their respective fields of practice. The basic principle of restorative or reparative justice is that wrongs are set right by giving back to the injured party that which restores equality, dignity, and rights. However, educational reforms
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“If education is the key, then school is the lock”: Reparative futures thinking beyond the modern school Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-07 Patrick Alexander
In this paper I bring together scholarship from the ‘reparative turn’ in the social sciences with the long tradition of critiquing schooling in the sociology of education. Most recently in this tradition, Ball and Collet-Sabé (2021) argue convincingly that the modern school is an ‘intolerable institution’ bound in its very epistemology to reproduce conditions of future uncertainty and inequity. I draw
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Radically hopeful visions: Futuring for institutional anti-racism work Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-07 Jessica Meharry, Hillary Carey
This paper describes how a reparative futures approach alters the orientations and methods of institutional DEI work and generates a different set of affective, joyful outcomes. New paths forward emerge when past injustice is examined to imagine better futures. This activity resulted in novel perspectives on what a holistic, inclusive, anti-racist campus community could look like someday. We introduced
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Beyond the ‘Anthropocene’ impasse: The Colonial past and dissenting futures in the era of climate crisis Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-12-07 Ritwik Ranjan
The crisis of futurity is a much discussed theme of recent decades. The rapidly unfolding climate crisis, and the advent of the Anthropocene thesis in its wake, have unsettled our customary assumptions about time and history and further aggravated our prevailing sense of the crisis of futurity. How far is it still possible— in light of such developments—to think about dissenting futures? It is crucial
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Urban futurism: Exploring the viability of self-sustaining Mars colonies as a solution to climate change & overpopulation Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-30 Ashish Makanadar
The prospect of establishing permanent human settlements on Mars has emerged as an audacious vision to simultaneously expand the frontiers of human civilization and defuse escalating planetary crises on Earth. This conceptual study critically investigates the multifaceted challenges and possibilities associated with creating artificially engineered, self-sustaining Martian habitats. A comprehensive
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Foresight in action: A longitudinal study based on a 25-year journey in the world of policy-oriented foresight Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-30 S.A. van ‘t Klooster, T. Cramer, M.B.A. van Asselt
In present times, in which we face several complex societal challenges and see a renewed interest in and importance of foresight, it makes sense to look back on looking forward in contexts of public policy: to reflect on lessons learned, to avoid common pitfalls and build on what works. In this paper, we describe our 25-year journey in the world of foresight from the question of how foresight practitioners
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Post-crises (new) normality. Across social practices and speculative fictions Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Marta Smagacz-Poziemska, Mateusz Borowski, Jarosław Działek, Zofia Łapniewska
The term of “normality” – we use in the title – stems from a discourse that (re)emerged at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, governing people’s imaginaries and beliefs that “back to normal life” or “better normal” will happen. Escalation of a war in Ukraine and concatenated environmental, energy and economic crises have dissuaded us from these views, showing rather that uncertainty will become
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Developments and challenges of foresight evaluation: Review of the past 30 years of research Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Byoung Kwon Ko, Jae-Suk Yang
As a particular subfield of futures studies, foresight evaluation has not yet been thoroughly studied. This paper investigates research on foresight evaluation, reviewing authors, articles, journals, topics, evaluative elements, and foresight frames. We analyzed 186 academic papers published over the past 30 years. The analysis shows that foresight evaluation, which originated in Europe and partly
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Participatory modeling of past, current and future groundwater governance: An experiment in Aousja Ghar El Melh, Tunisia Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-18 Emeline HASSENFORDER, Arij FERJANI, Fatma TRABELSI
Anticipatory approaches are increasingly used to guide decision-making on environmental issues. A number of these approaches, particularly in the field of anticipatory governance, promote the participation of users in anticipatory thinking. Various tools are already used for this purpose. Nevertheless, most of these tools focus on the present and the future, rarely on the past. This article introduces
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Expressions of untruth, suppressions of truth. A 21st century reintroduction to “Simulation and Dissimulation” Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Steffen Roth, Jari Kaivo-oja, Kristof van Assche, Harry F. Dahms
In this article, we explore the paradoxical relationship between simulation and dissimulation. We draw on nine contributions to an eponymous virtual special issue of Futures to emphasise that overreliance on simulations or their confusion with research methods is associated with the risk of abetting academic or political dissimulation or immunization strategies that escape conventional forms of control
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The Japanese government’s promotion of automated driving driven by shared positive expectations Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-14 Yukari Yamasaki
In recent years, the Japanese government has shown great interest in automated driving and has invested in related projects. This paper first aims to investigate the government’s expectations of automated driving at three levels: project, function, and societal, and how the sociotechnical vision “Society 5.0″ is used to justify and drive automated driving-related policies. Second, it discusses how
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Delphi-based visual scenarios: An innovative use of generative adversarial networks Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-05 Simone Di Zio, Yuri Calleo, Mario Bolzan
In the Futures Studies context, the Delphi-based scenario (DBS) is a valuable method for setting future-oriented strategies and actions by gathering expert opinions in multiple iterative rounds, in order to make better decisions in the present. However, one of the main challenges is to find a suitable representation of the scenarios both for evaluation and decision-making. The development of future
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Reparative futures in a thick, virtuous present Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-04 Richard Sandford
Reparative action is often justified by appealing to consequentialist or deontological ethics. This paper argues that these ethics are dependent on an assumed continuity between the present and the future, and, further, that this assumption is not warranted in the face of a complex and uncertain future. If this is the case, actions taken to repair historic and emerging harms may lack justification
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Reparative remembering for just futures: History education, multiple perspectives and responsibility Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-04 Peter Manning, Julia Paulson, Duong Keo
The growing literature around reparative futures in education agrees on the importance of multiple and inclusive narratives for learning about the past. Indeed, it is recognised that multiplicity has to be part of a reparative account of history given the harms caused by single, exclusionary and hegemonic historical narratives. However, there is limited literature, pedagogical guidance or accounts
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Framework for understanding quantum computing use cases from a multidisciplinary perspective and future research directions Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-11-04 Dandison Ukpabi, Heikki Karjaluoto, Astrid Bötticher, Anastasija Nikiforova, Dragoş Petrescu, Paulina Schindler, Visvaldis Valtenbergs, Lennard Lehmann
Recently, there has been increasing awareness of the tremendous opportunities inherent in quantum computing (QC). Specifically, the speed and efficiency of QC will significantly impact the Internet of Things, cryptography, finance, and marketing. Accordingly, there has been increased QC research funding from national and regional governments and private firms. However, critical concerns regarding legal
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A vernacular for living systems: Alternative framings for the future of food Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Philip A. Loring
Industrialized nations face the imminent need to transform their food systems in service to climate, biodiversity, and humanity, and inroads to such transformation are arguably already being made in pockets of innovation and activism around the world. However, debates rage over the various technologies and values that ought to drive those transformations. In this essay I argue that we are in the midst
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Imagining carbon-neutral futures: Comprehensive narratives through citizen participation Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-10-28 Hyun Jung Park, Yun Hee Lee, Taedong Lee
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Present-oriented reconciliation and reparative futures in the making – The case of Rodeemos el Diálogo in Colombia Futures (IF 3.788) Pub Date : 2023-10-22 Andrei Gómez-Suárez
Today, policymakers and practitioners are encouraged to see reconciliation as a future- oriented process. While liberal peace paradigms conceive of reconciliation as something that lies ahead of us, achievable and measurable in linear processes, I contest teleological notions of reconciliation by drawing on evolutionary theory and neuroscience. I contend that reconciliation is a present-oriented process