The number of studies related to socio-cultural AI (SCAI) is growing dramatically. Therefore, the goal is to perform the first systematic review of the key sources published over the last decade with consequences for social science, humanities, engineering, computer science, and policy research. The novelty of the study is not only the first snapshot of high-ranked articles from seven academic databases

This article examines ‘futures literacy’ as a pedagogical framework and thus contributes to the conversation about the epistemology of futures literacy, the possibility of envisioning approaches for the future, and a unified approach to literacy, based on the assumption that education is transformative and entails critical-thinking. Specifically, we explore and discuss what futures literacy means in

What if solar geoengineering were enacted not through careful intergovernmental deliberations or the actions of a rogue state, but by millions of private citizens taking matters into their own hands? This thought experiment—the subject of a scenario exercise at the Sixth International Geoengineering Governance Summer School—produced a range of critical reflections on international responses to such

The prospect of solar geoengineering, which would entail reflecting a small fraction of incoming sunlight back to space to cool the planet, has been slowly but steadily rising on the climate policy agenda. Early research suggests that solar geoengineering could substantially reduce climate risks, but its development and potential use would be accompanied by an array of ecological and sociopolitical

This article focuses on examining the parallels between the recent discussion on futures literacy as human capability and the longer tradition of futures education as a means to enhance the individual’s capacity to use the future. Merging these two lines of discussion with transformative educational theory, we proceed to propose a conceptual model for transformative futures learning and a new 21st

We live in an age of transition driven by technological opportunities, and the speed with which industries are disrupted accelerates. For organisations, the consequences of these changes are to replace static capabilities with dynamic capabilities, such as futures literacy. This paper explores the concept of futures literacy and identifies some of the barriers to developing futures literacy in organisations

Futures Literacy (FL) is a capability yet to take root within the context of Higher Education (HE). As HE is increasingly addressing complex societal issues, developing FL can be important for both HE students and faculty. This study evaluates a faculty development program that sets out to build FL within the context of HE. The aim is twofold. First, it explores to what extent participants developed

The practice of anticipation and futures literacy in postcolonial West Africa requires a conceptual framework capable of capturing and articulating recurrent phenomena from the past in the region’s postcolonial present-present. For this purpose, this article theorizes and operationalizes a framework termed the past futures framework (PFF). In this article, past futures are defined as final versions

In the face of increasingly clear climate-change impacts and continued inadequacy of efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and adapt to ongoing climate changes, increasing attention has been directed to geoengineering: deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system to moderate global warming. Such interventions could reduce risks in novel ways, but are controversial because

University-based research is an inherently future-oriented activity and plays a unique role in shaping futures in diverse domains. Despite the push for academic research to demonstrate ‘societal impact’, there is surprisingly little thought to the need for, or development of, futures literacy as a core capability within research impact in higher education. Futures literacy – notably the ability to

Urban policymakers of the 2020s must act within various types of wicked socio-ecological disruptions. Under deep uncertainty and time pressure, they must make decisions which will define the scope of possible actions in the future. Our aim was to develop a research instrument that would enable researchers and practitioners to learn about such policymaking. We designed and ran a half-day simulation

As climate change risks becomes more severe, solar geoengineering (SG) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are being considered more seriously as potential response options. However, these climate interventions do not fit completely into existing international governance structures. To grapple with and innovate proposed governance mechanisms that accommodate the associated technical, social, and environmental

This paper concludes the collection on an extended scenario exercise that examined governance challenges and potential responses for solar geoengineering. It synthesizes the experiences of eight participant groups who worked with four scenarios of unauthorized use of solar geoengineering. It draws both substantive insights about solar geoengineering risks and governance and methodological insights

This paper provides insights into the practice of design-based interventions in transdisciplinary research and demonstrates how design prototyping can be made fruitful in processes of transformation and collaborative knowledge production. It shows how heterogeneous perspectives and stocks of knowledge can be related to each other and moments of integration generated by working with conceptual designs

This paper reflects on the emergence of an international effort to codify and cultivate a new ‘human capability’: Futures Literacy. Futures Literacy is understood as the technical expertise to reflexively ‘use the future’ to perceive and inform actions in the present. Its advocates call for Futures Literacy to become a new ‘universal literacy’. While the critical use of ideas of the future to inform

The paper examines a scenario exercise concerning deployment of solar geoengineering by a small group of states that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Two groups of participants were each asked to provide expert decision-making advice to an alliance comprising great powers, and to propose a political response to the deployment initiative. This paper discusses the initial governance proposals

This Virtual Curated Special Issue comprises 33 of Richard’s Slaughter’s publications in Futures Journal, alongside commentaries on their themes and the contribution that Richard’s work has had on individual scholars and practitioners as well the broader futures studies community. Thirteen contributors have offered reflections covering six key themes of his work, namely critical commentary on futures;

This paper explores the role of imagination as our primary cognitive mechanism for anticipating and deliberating on the future, and adopts the perspective that imagination is an innate human faculty that can be developed and deployed through particular methods and practices. Imagination is a crucial component for individual self-efficacy, collective agency, and our broader capacity for long-term survival

If humanity ever encountered extraterrestrial civilisations who had already formed an interstellar network with others and which had its own interstellar legal framework, would we want to accede to that framework, with the likely effect of having to adapt our own laws? Can there be a joint view of what a global human position should look like or is it impossible to arrive at a consensus? Aspects of

In the energy transition process, Grassroot Initiatives (GIs) are increasingly recognized by both researchers and policy makers as new actors. GIs aim to create a sustainable society in both generation and consumption of energy, responding to the local situation, interests and values of the communities involved (Seyfang and Smith, 2017). Looking at this definition, it appears that GIs anticipate certain

The meaning of ‘futures literacy’ (FL) depends from both the two individual terms composing FL and the relations between them. The paper offers (i) an analysis of how the meanings of ‘futures’ and ‘literacy’ converge in FL, and (ii) a review of a variety of issues that FL should be able to address in order to eventually become a full-fledged framework for the future, such as (a) the world as an incomplete

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

This brief article provides an overview of selected research monograph books from Foundation Professor Richard Slaughter's research career. Foundation Professor Slaughter's books have contributed significantly to Futures Studies over a forty year period. The development of Critical Futures Studies, Integral Futures, and Anthropocene debates are considered. Foundation Professor Slaughter's books are

This article reviews Richard Slaughter's considerable and impressive contribution to Futures Education and outlines his influence and support for me as a colleague to include Futures in my work.

This paper offers a personal reflection on the work of eminent futurist Richard Slaughter. Key aspects of Slaughter’s work, his method and approach, his aspirations and his central theme of precarity and ‘What Next?’ are detailed. The author also provides two examples of the direct influence of Slaughter’s work on his own.

Richard Slaughter is one of a handful of people to whom we all owe undying gratitude for his role in sustaining and nurturing futures studies. He did so in many ways—by teaching and research, and as serving as President of the World Futures Studies Federation from 2001–2005. But I here wish to acknowledge his role in helping many of us understand what critical futures studies is, and in formulating

The piece highlights the methodological contributions that Richard Slaughter has made to FS/Foresight. It organizations these contributions into four distinct roles: chronicler, critic, innovator, and champion. Richard had the remarkable ability to take up a new role as felt it was needed. His work made a significant and lasting contribution to developing the methodological capacity of futurists and

Finland has implemented a process of governmental foresight, aimed at understanding multidimensional and interdependent future challenges in order to support national decision-making, and to strengthen the national innovation system. This study focuses on three Government Reports on the Future. The Reports are key documents that act as inputs for the parliament in a futures oriented dialogue between

In this paper, we argue that a key component of futures literacy is reflexivity regarding different attitudes toward the future. Various intellectual traditions and futures practices make epistemologically distinct claims about the future and its manifestations in the present. Through their different outlooks on analyzing, understanding, and influencing the future, these diverse approaches represent

Richard Slaughter’s approach to understanding and teaching futures studies is foundational to the thinking and practice of the more than 160 students that went through the Master of Strategic Foresight program at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. I studied with Richard, worked with him and have been guided by his approach in my foresight practice for over 15 years. Richard’s

One of Richard Slaughter’s central innovations has been to bring the other half of reality to the field of Futures Studies. Slaughter has argued for the inner dimension of ideas, developmental levels, and mentation to be as central – if not more so – than the technical, systemic and concrete reality the field was founded upon. In this article I will present an overview of Slaughter’s central innovations