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Educating researchers in the metadiscipline of foresight

James P. Kahan (Full Circle, Portland, Oregon, USA)

Foresight

ISSN: 1463-6689

Article publication date: 4 June 2020

Issue publication date: 10 December 2020

239

Abstract

Purpose

The science of Foresight differs from the commonplace notion of what a science is because it is a metadiscipline – a logical type of science higher than the logical type of disciplinary sciences. It is practical, uses transdisciplinary processes that combine scientific disciplines and often examines counterfactuals in a scientific manner. This study aims to demonstrate that Foresight is a science, by presenting a number of best practices and potential innovations in higher education that could facilitate obtaining skills for Foresight science.

Design/methodology/approach

The methods of scientific education that have served us well in the past are inadequate for metadisciplinary sciences such as Foresight. The paper discusses what metadisciplinarity is, using a variety of examples, and distinguishes it from disciplines and ways of crossing disciplinary boundaries. Understanding the essential characteristics of Foresight as a metadisciplinary science leads to identifying current best practices and possible educational innovations in undergraduate education that will facilitate obtaining Foresight skills. Throughout the paper, examples are drawn from the education and professional experience of the author in the USA and Europe.

Findings

This paper demonstrates that Foresight is a science and presents a number of best practices and potential innovations in higher education that could facilitate obtaining skills for Foresight science. It identifies barriers to those innovations and approaches to overcome them.

Originality/value

This viewpoint paper clarifies the meaning of the terms interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and metadisciplinarity to identify the essential characteristics of Foresight as a science. Then, it identifies and advocates needed changes in North American higher education to provide earlier and more efficient opportunities for Foresight researchers and users to obtain the skills they need.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author has benefitted in this paper from discussions and critical readings by (in alphabetical order), Pete Andrews, Audrey Bilger, Connie Brand, Deborah Bouchette, Doris Cellarius, Richard Cellarius, John Cox, Kathia Emery, Knute Fisher, Paul Gronke, Alice Harra, Richard Hazel, David Kanouse, Laura Leviton, Andreas Ligtvoet, Govind Nair, Bill Pryor, Odette van de Riet, Silke Tönshoff, Sharon Torigoe, Barbara West, and D. Robert Worley. Special thanks go to Issue Editor Jonathan Calof and two anonymous reviewers.

Citation

Kahan, J.P. (2020), "Educating researchers in the metadiscipline of foresight", Foresight, Vol. 22 No. 5/6, pp. 703-715. https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-03-2020-0022

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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