scholarly journals Governing the future: perspectives from literary studies – commentary to Jones

2019 ◽  
Vol 197 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-148
Author(s):  
Lieven Ameel
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Literary Fiction ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Future Perspectives ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
The Future

Taking its cue from Rhys Jones’s article “Governing the future and the search for spatial justice: Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act”, this commentary reflects on some of the challenges attached to attempts to govern the future. It proposes perspectives from literature and literary studies to enrich how we imagine the future. This commentary maps out how literary fiction and other forms of future storytelling associated with qualia – the “how it feels” of future possible worlds – may provide an important complementary to other, more distancing, modes of envisioning the future.

scholarly journals Governing the future and the search for spatial justice: Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act

2019 ◽  
Vol 197 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-24
Author(s):  
Rhys Jones
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
The Future ◽  
Just Society ◽  
The Many ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Recent contributions in Geography and beyond have examined historical and more contemporary efforts to govern the future. Work in this area has highlighted some important conceptual considerations by drawing attention to the way in which states, regions and other organisations view the future as an object of governance for a variety of reasons: as something that constitutes a threat that needs to be managed; as something that can be predicted, thus leading to an improvement in governance; as something that allows a more hopeful and just society, economy and environment to be expressed (and achieved). In this paper, I use this context as a way of making an argument for the need to: 1) consider more explicitly the many geographies associated with governing the future; and 2) explore how these geographies might impact on the definition and promotion of spatial justice. I illustrate these arguments through an empirical discussion of the development and implementation of Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act, an Act that seeks to create a better and more just Wales by the year 2050. I conclude by exhorting geographers to take the lead in exploring the impact that geographical themes might have on states’ and regions’ attempts to achieve spatial justice in the present and the future.

Enhancing Humans and Sustainability: The Reunion of Bioethics and Environmental Ethics

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Normative Study ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

Emerging technologies are hyped as ‘transformative’ by their proponents, who prophesize that these new technologies will significantly and beneficially change our world. Concerns have been raised about the potential environmental impacts of these technologies. Emerging technologies and their implications on humans, society, and the environment challenge our understanding of our responsibilities to the environment and future generations. Utilizing Van Potter’s sense of bioethics that meant the normative study of humanity’s place in the biosphere, I attempt to reintegrate bioethics and environmental ethics, to address questions about human well-being in the future, its dependence on complex environmental systems, and the impact of emerging technologies particularly enhancement technologies upon it. Ultimately, I argue that the future envisioned by proponents of human enhancement technologies is not consistent with our responsibilities to future generations which including leaving certain amounts of natural capital, including human ones.

Intergenerational Equity and Responsibility for Future Generations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kotaro Suzumura
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Voting Rights ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Intergenerational Equity ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Large Share ◽  
The Past ◽  
Present Generation ◽  
The Future

Why should the present generation be held responsible for the sustainable well-being of future generations, especially since past generations must bear some large share of the cause of global warming? This chapter describes the principle that all generations irrespective of when they emerged in the past or will emerge in the future should have equal opportunity to lead worthwhile lives of their choice. It assesses several alternatives including assigning voting rights to the very young and setting aside these alternatives as on balance unsatisfactory or unworkable. On the principle of responsibility and compensation, the chapter proposes that the present generation must either abate global warming or compensate future generations. It explains and defends why this one-sided, external, and irrevocable choice of the present generation is the only sensible and moral alternative for addressing intergenerational equity.

scholarly journals For the Sake of the Future: Can Democratic Deliberation Help Thinking and Caring about Future Generations?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5487
Author(s):  
Katariina Kulha ◽  
Mikko Leino ◽  
Maija Setälä ◽  
Maija Jäske ◽  
Staffan Himmelroos
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Intergenerational Conflict ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Flood Protection ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
The Future

This article examines whether democratic deliberation can enhance participants’ capacity to consider future generations’ perspectives and willingness to make sacrifices to ensure their well-being. In addition to normal deliberation, we are interested in the effects of a mental time travel exercise where deliberators imagine themselves in the future (without ageing). The study is based on an experiment conducted as a part of Citizens’ Assembly that contributed to the long-term planning of the Satakunta region in Finland. Our findings suggest that deliberation as such increases participants’ willingness to consider future generations’ perspectives in long-term planning; yet the mental time travel exercise had only a modest impact on perspective-taking. The results also show some support for the assumption that deliberation can enhance willingness to make sacrifices for future generations, although we do not see such an impact in case of an intergenerational conflict in flood protection.

scholarly journals A ‘futures’ approach towards the wellbeing of future generations in Wales and beyond

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Azam
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come ◽  
Mind Set ◽  
The Uk

Abstract 'Futures' is a way of thinking about future uncertainty. It is not about predicting the future but is about developing alternative futures or scenarios and using them to inform how best to move towards the preferred future. This approach has been explored and applied to Wales, the UK, which has the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This Act has been globally recognised as a unique sustainable development legislation, putting Wales at the forefront of creating a different future for generations to come. Whilst most public bodies have always had responsibilities in delivering a range of services to support health and wellbeing, one of the key innovative requirements of the Act is the focus on the 'future', which by definition requires new and different approaches. This in turn means new tools, new skills and a new and different mind-set in which planners, commissioners, policy makers and service providers need to take a long-term view to addressing health and well-being. The presentation will explore the various approaches, methods and tools for 'futures' thinking and how this innovative agenda is progressing in Wales.

scholarly journals The Well-Being of Future Generations

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Broome
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Pareto Principle ◽  
Intergenerational Justice ◽  
Future People ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Future

This chapter surveys some of the issues that arise in policymaking when the well-being of future generations must be taken into account. It considers the different sorts of discounting that may be applied to future well-being, and considers whether any of them are permissible. It next argues that policymakers cannot properly ignore the effects that different policies have on the number of future people who will come into existence. These effects are pervasive, and the chapter goes on to consider what theoretical basis is available for setting a value on them. Finally it describes the “nonidentity effect,” through which a choice of policy affects the identity of people born in the future, and examines what implications it has for intergenerational justice and for the Pareto principle.

Engendering Constitutional Realization of Sustainable Development in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-191
Author(s):  
Peter Oniemola ◽  
Oyinkan Tasie
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Economic ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Future

AbstractThis article examines the relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) that appear to be in tune with the tenets of sustainable development, which has received much attention at both international and municipal levels. It was found that the relevant aspects of the Constitution on sustainable development are contained in Chapter Two of the Constitution under the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy, which include environmental, economic and social objectives. The constitution provides for their non-justifiability to the effect that the court shall not entertain any question on implementation of the objectives. Therefore, constitutional basis for sustainable development in Nigeria has been whittled down. It is contended that given the importance of sustainable development to the well-being of Nigerians and the future generations, it is expedient that the provisions of Chapter Two of the constitution relevant to sustainable development be made justiciable in Nigeria.

scholarly journals New and Emerging Challenges to Heritage and Well-Being: A Critical Review

Heritage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1300-1315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S.C. Taçon ◽  
Sarah Baker
Keyword(s):  
Human Health ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Relationship

In the past decade, scholarship has documented the ways in which interacting with different forms of heritage impact individual and/or community well-being, as well as the harm to human well-being that occurs when heritage is damaged or destroyed. We bring the results of a review of this literature together, defining both heritage and well-being in relation to each other and exploring the relationship between heritage and well-being. New and emerging threats to heritage and, in turn, well-being are outlined, as well as new ways of preserving heritage for future generations. The future of heritage is discussed along with the importance of the concept of “living heritage”. We conclude that heritage is essential for contemporary and future well-being, and that if we do not better care for heritage then human health will be negatively impacted.

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