Focused Futures from Finland

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petri Tapio ◽  
Sirkka Heinonen
Keyword(s):  
Hybrid Methods ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Small Unit ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Futures Research ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
The Future

The purpose of this article is to review the futures studies activities performed in Finland, focusing especially on Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC). The activities include research, education as well as societal interaction and networking. The FFRC has proceeded from a small unit of three devoted persons in 1992 to one of the key futures research institutes in Europe with about fifty staff members, hundreds of research and developmental projects, and more than a thousand publications. Although acknowledging the variety of futures studies topics and approaches nourished by the researchers, we conclude that facilitating expert-based and stakeholder-based futures studies processes is the key competence of the FFRC. Hybrid methods are continuously developed, meaning combinations of more specific techniques. A proper mix of tools and approaches to gather, analyze, organize, and interpret data is always searched for. At the end of the article, we present four scenarios of the future of the FFRC jointly made by the staff.

scholarly journals Futures studies in Finland

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erzsébet Nováky ◽  
Eszter Monda
Keyword(s):  
Historical Background ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Futures Research ◽  
The Future ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
The Government ◽  
To Come ◽  
Major Emphasis

The development of futures studies and the future-oriented attitude of Finnish institutions and the government can serve as great example for other countries. This attitude appears in education and economy, issues in which Finland is highly competitive in Europe. We introduce the futures studies-related organizations and the foresight system of Finland. An overview of the development of futures studies and the activities, purposes of foresight institutions, with a major emphasis on the Finland Futures Research Centre will be presented. The main question is how could other countries utilize the Finnish example? Societal changes depend on the environment and its historical background, making it quite a challenge to come up with an all-adaptable answer for this question. Thus we will only present guidelines and proposals regarding the development of strategy at the end of this paper.

An Intervention Targetting Hopelessness in Adolescents by Promoting Positive Future Images

2001 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 51-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M Gidley
Keyword(s):  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Psychological Literature ◽  
Futures Research ◽  
The Future ◽  
Images Of The Future

This paper presents some ground-work for the development of a new theoretical approach which has the potential to contribute to primary prevention of suicide in adolescents by targetting hopelessness. Drawing on the extensive psychological literature which has linked hopelessness with depression and suicide risk for decades, the author notes that although there is a strong research and clinical base for targetting depression, there is a gap in the psychological literature when it comes to targetting hopelessness, specifically. Looking beyond the psychology field to the futures studies research field, the author draws links between the psychology research that does exist and the youth futures research which correlates rising youth suicide rates with growing fears and negativity of young people towards the future. Based on this new theoretical perspective, an intervention has been developed and is detailed here which attempts to reduce hopelessness in adolescents by promoting more positive images of the future.

The Futurists. Experts in World Futures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Images Of The Future ◽  
The Way

Alvin Toffler’s writings encapsulated many of the tensions of futurism: the way that futurology and futures studies oscillated between forms of utopianism and technocracy with global ambitions, and between new forms of activism, on the one hand, and emerging forms of consultancy and paid advice on the other. Paradoxically, in their desire to create new images of the future capable of providing exits from the status quo of the Cold War world, futurists reinvented the technologies of prediction that they had initially rejected, and put them at the basis of a new activity of futures advice. Consultancy was central to the field of futures studies from its inception. For futurists, consultancy was a form of militancy—a potentially world altering expertise that could bypass politics and also escaped the boring halls of academia.

scholarly journals Hope against hope: COVID-19 and the space for political imagination

2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942110045
Author(s):  
Jonathan Gross
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Political Imagination ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Devised Theatre ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Future

COVID-19 has loosened neoliberalism’s hegemonic grip on the future. Amid the enormous suffering experienced internationally, there is much discussion of how to ‘Build Back Better’, and hope for a more caring, just and sustainable world. But competing futures are being imagined and planned. Hope is never politically neutral, and the content of collective hope is a key site of political struggle. This is partly a question of space: who has the literal and discursive space in which to develop visions of the future? The following article considers the role that cultural studies can play in this struggle. ‘Conjunctural analysis’ has a key task, making visible the competing futures contained within the present. But cultural studies should go further: combining conjunctural analysis with methods drawn from a range of scholarly and activist traditions – including critical pedagogy, devised theatre and the interdisciplinary field of futures studies – that deliberately create spaces for imagining new futures.

scholarly journals Alternatives to and Reduction of Animal Use in Biomedical Research, Education and Testing

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (1_part_1) ◽  
pp. 65-74
Author(s):  
John M. Frazier ◽  
Alan M. Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Toxicity Testing ◽  
Research Education ◽  
New Methods ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The Future ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Animal Use ◽  
Do So

Biomedical endeavours can be divided into three major categories: research, education, and testing. Within the context of each of these categories, activities involving whole animals have made major contributions and will continue to do so in the future. However, with technological developments in the areas of biotechnology and computers, new methods are already reducing the use of whole animals in certain areas. This article discusses the general issues of alternatives and then focuses on the development of new approaches to toxicity testing.

The Future: RAND, Brand and Dangerous to Know

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Beck
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Rand Corporation ◽  
Global Business ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Futures Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Whole Earth Catalog

The interdisciplinary field of futures research is now at the heart of policy-making and business strategy, but the serious study of the future has its roots in Cold War strategy, led by Hermann Kahn at the RAND Corporation and the Hudson Institute. The migration of futures research into business was accompanied by a burgeoning countercultural futurism, most vividly embodied in Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog. The founding of the Global Business Network in 1987 brought together many of the key players from business futurism and the avant-garde wing of futures studies, forging a high-powered consultancy that went on to provide services for multi-national corporations and government agencies. As pressing contemporary issues such as global security and climate change prompt futures researchers to develop scenarios intended to deal with potentially extinction-level catastrophes, can an interrogation of the recent history of the future contribute to the release of a critical engagement with the future that is not beholden to the lockdown of its Cold War legacy?

The Image Today: Field-Notes on the Interdisciplinary Use of the Visioning Workshop

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Cingel Bodinet
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Full Bloom ◽  
The Future ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Images Of The Future

Fred Polak wrote in his classic text, The Image of The Future: The rise and fall of images of the future precedes or accompanies the rise and fall of cultures. As long as the society’s image is positive and flourishing, the flower of culture is in full bloom. Once the image begins to decay and lose its vitality, however, the culture does not long survive. This is, arguably, one of the most important tenets of Futures Studies as an academic discipline. This essay explores the importance and practice of imbuing our communities (especially our youth) with the ability to create positive future images; assisting them in the recognition of their own agency in the creation of preferred futures; and encouraging them to become active participants in the creation of positive personal and communal futures today.

Theories in Futures Studies: Examining the Theory Base of the Futures Field in Light of Survey Results

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matti Minkkinen
Keyword(s):  
Research Centre ◽  
Futures Studies ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Theory Base

This review article opens discussion on theories in futures studies by analyzing survey results from Finland Futures Research Centre and using the results as an entry point to discussing theoretical lineages found in the literature. The survey, conducted in 2019, included twenty-four responses from researchers and postgraduate students. Altogether 192 different theories or theoretical frameworks were identified. Social science theories and conceptual frameworks were particularly prevalent in the responses, and the most common recurring themes included systems, complexity, and anticipation. The responses are discussed in terms of three levels: philosophy of science, theories of futures studies, and theories in futures studies. Theories in futures studies are further divided into theories of action, practices, and behavior; theories of change; and theories on the micro-, meso-, and macro levels. The results are contextualized and complemented by proposing five functionally differentiated theoretical approaches: (1) theories for forecasting, (2) theories for representing futures, (3) theories for pursuing desired futures, (4) theories for making sense of anticipatory processes, and (5) radical epistemological critiques. The analysis is intended to open discussion on theories rather than provide an exhaustive list of the most important theories. Nevertheless, we can conclude that the field has a rich theory base which could be emphasized in futures education and developed further. It is crucial that actors in the futures field are aware of the theories that guide them because influential theories take part in making the future.

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