The Future of Futures Studies

Today, the increasing number of futurists, scholars, business planners, and others in the futuring field is a good sign of the usefulness of Futures Studies for humanity, just as Dator wished so 26 years ago (Dator, 1986).

Masini (1989) described the future of Futures Studies 23 years ago in this manner: “Global models have lost their appeal, and there is a growing movement toward Futures Studies that are local. … As for methods, strategic planning will become more important in both the public and the private sectors.”

Just a decade ago, Bell hoped that the future of Futures Studies was bright, “because it is reasonable to hope that futurists will be able to establish the field in most of the world’s colleges and universities” (Bell, 2002). In his view, a trans-disciplinary matrix for Futures Studies was emerging composed of shared assumptions, values, methods and key concepts.

While the open and facilitative aspects of futures work should not be dismissed or minimized, Sardar (1999) believed the field must move beyond its identification with limited areas, agendas and interests. In order to do so it should move beyond earlier Western models. Remembering what Bell (1996) had imagined, we can see that the future of Futures Studies is tied up to the future of humanity more than ever.

On the other hand, Samet (2010) believes that Futures Studies is an evolutionary science, which will possibly become integrated within complexity science by 2050. The future of Futures Studies may be discussed in terms of challenges we may face now and in the future. In Marien’s (2002) point of view, “the question of tolerable diversity is at the very heart of the future of Futures Studies and deserves much discussion.” Meanwhile, Schwarz (2008) stated that ‘‘the biggest challenge in developing Futures Studies lies in the improvement to implement its methods in corporations’’.

I think that the future of Futures Studies can be identified either in terms of future achievements or within its conventional architecture embracing methods, theory, frameworks and philosophy (Gary, 2008). I prefer to address the issue based on potential future achievements. While more futurists are strongly committed to bring about desirable changes in organizations and societies they serve, fewer success stories are reported compared to what we might have expected. Why is it so? What has happened that has made shaping desired changes more difficult than ever? Is the circle of our choices shrinking because of socio-economic factors, or have we lost the mission we are created for? Whatever the real reason is, it seems that we need a collective revival to re-define and accomplish our mission as the futurists.

In my point of view, Futures Studies is both the art and the science; the art of influencing the people we serve and the science of making the strategic changes we desire. In the same manner, a futurist can be regarded as an “artoscientist”. An artoscientist brings beauty to whatever he or she does. He or she is equipped with the ability of creating necessary changes in a beautiful manner. A futurist is not just a scientist who works with future-oriented topics, but studies the ways of bringing more beauty to what is going to be shaped for the future.

I think that beauty is the lost element in many of our works. Societies, cities, organizations, communities, people and families need beauty more than ever. Think about your feelings when you watch a nice painting or a movie or while you hear a musical masterpiece. How do you describe such feelings? Can you find sufficient words to express them? I doubt you could. What I mean by beauty is not limited to appearance, in terms of color, sound or harmony. It goes far beyond the physical pleasantness and extends to deep layers of meaning and sense. It is tied to the most innate need of every human being: prettiness loving. People love to meet the prettiest futures. As the futurists, can we design such futures for them? This is what we are assigned for.

Any application of advanced futures methods, including critical, layered and integral approaches can be really useful if they can serve that objective. Using futures methods with an action focus, such as back-casting will be meaningful in the light of bringing more beauty to our works and our communities. We should align Futures Studies with a worldview that encourages becoming more receptive to transformative beauty-making activities. In other words, we need to build individual capacity for understanding and application of foresight in the light of prettiness. Yes, the world needs foresight to enjoy the beauty, the beauties of universe, souls and meanings. The future of Futures Studies will be shaped in this way.

Please remember that these are not empty slogans. If we succeed to translate Futures Studies into works that resonate with the moral capacity of every “artoscientist” (futurist) in creating more beauty, we can be hopeful to see preferable futures we expect, especially in our lovely profession and field of study.

Einstein once said: “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.” Are we ready to this task?

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Alireza Hejazi is a freelance futurist. He is the founding editor of “FuturesDiscovery.com”. He is also a member of WFS and WFSF. Hejazi is currently an MA student of Strategic Foresight at Regent University School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship. His works are available at: http://www.futuresdiscovery.com/

References:
Bell, W. (2002). A community of futurists and the state of the futures field, Futures, 34, 235–247.
Bell, W. (1996). Foundations of futures studies: History, purposes, and knowledge, vol. 1. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
Dator, J. (1986). The Futures of Futures Studies: A View from Hawaii, Futures 18, 3: 440-445.
Gary, Jay. E. (2008). Considering the PhD in Futures Studies: How a four-Step ladder of methods, theory, frameworks and philosophy helps advance the discipline. L. Groff and A. Ligtvoet (Chairs), Implementing Visions of Emergence— Perspectives, Tools and Methods. World Futures Studies Federation XXth World Conference, University West, Trollhatten, Sweden. July 2.
Marien, M. (2002). Futures studies in the 21st Century: a reality-based view, Futures, 34, 261–281.
Masini, E. B. (1989). The Future of Futures Studies: a European View, Futures, 21:2, 152-160.
Riedy, C. (2009). The influence of futures work on public policy and sustainability, Foresight, 11: 5, 40-56.
Samet, R. H. (2010). Futurists and their schools: A response to Ziauddin Sardar’s ‘the namesake’, Futures 42, pp. 895–900.
Sardar, Z. (1999). Rescuing all our futures: the future of futures studies. London: Adamantine.
Schwarz, J.O. (2008). Assessing the future of futures studies in management, Futures, 40, 3, 237-46.