PurposeThis article aims to contribute to futures theory building by assessing the inherent ontological and epistemological presumptions in foresight studies. Such premises, which are usually embedded in foresight studies, are contrasted with sociological imagination and contemporary social science discourse.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a conceptual analysis of theoretical assumptions embedded in foresight studies.FindingsSociological lenses, including concepts like anticipation, latency, time, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, change and plurality of images, offer clarity in terms of both futures studies and foresights.Research limitations/implicationsExplicating presumptions embedded in foresight methods helps recognition of how such methods shape the concepts of future and time. This is vital for assessment of the analytical products of foresights studies.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the ambition of linking the theoretical world of futures research and the practical world of foresights closer together by explicating key concepts and implicit assumptions in both fields.

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Purpose -This article seeks to investigate the knowledge sharing processes in expert teams working with foresighting, creating knowledge for and about the future in electronic work groups.Design/methodology/approach -Observations and assessments have been made this study in two expert workshops conducted on the European level aimed at assessing the true status of plausible hydrogen technologies and their potential.Findings -Building on an understanding of knowledge sharing as cyclic in its orientation, it is proposed that knowledge creation in expert teams draws heavily on latent knowledge embedded in the individual experts. Explicating latent knowledge is seen as occurring during reconstructions that involve questioning, confrontations and debates. Such reconstructions are not fully explicated in the dualistic representation of knowledge often referred to as explicit and tacit. Research limitations/implications -Based on the assumption that expertise used in foresighting is embedded in some sort of implicit knowledge, which is latent, but not necessarily expressed previously, two hypotheses are proposed to be explored and pursued by means of a quasi-experimental design to improve the understanding of the nature of knowledge creation and sharing processes as well as the linkage between implicit and explicit knowledge.Practical implications -As a nominal group process, the use of an interactive electronic workshop seemingly produces information (ideas, assessments, measures, actions, etc.) more unbiased, more effectively and more abundantly than traditional expert groups.Originality/value -This research contributes to the discussions of the linkages between the use of electronic work groups as a mode for eliciting expert information, and the foresight strategic planning processes.