Futures Studies as a Quest for Meaning

Abstract

This article reflects on four decades of activity in the futures arena. Overall, it tracks a process of deepening insight and growing appreciation for the richness and complexity of life in all its myriad forms. Coupled with this is what I have come to regard as our inescapable responsibility for being active in ways that protect and nurture our natural and cultural heritage, both of which are under-sustained and ever-deepening threat. To do so, we need to recover a clear perception of how extreme and “abnormal” our present situation vis-à-vis Planet Earth really is. This entails removing the veils from our eyes, setting aside convenient fictions, and gaining the courage to face reality. This view can also be framed as “finding ways forward in impossible times.” It is a kind of “sub-text” for the kind of Futures Studies I have pursued. Part 1 provides an overview of early influences and experiences. Part 2 summarizes some core learnings. Part 3 provides examples of the kinds of “depth appreciation” that I believe prefigure long-term solutions to the global emergency.

Views from nowhere, somewhere and everywhere else: The tragedy of the horizon in the early Anthropocene

“…While the IPCC and IPBES examples provide important and high profile sociotechnical imaginaries, it is important to examine other perspectives. Within the sub-discipline of futures studies these could be loosely gathered under the concept of Integral Futures (Inayatullah, 1998, 2010; Slaughter, 2008a, 2008b, 2011, 2020). This aims to provide ‘ deeper insight into the nature of human beings and, in particular, the structure of their own unique interior worlds ’ (Slaughter, 2008b: 121).…”