The future as a public good: decolonising the future through anticipatory participatory action research

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to nurture reflections on the colonization of the future in the present with a particular focus on Africa. This paper aims at exploring how participatory research and particularly anticipatory action research can contribute to a decolonising process. Design/methodology/approach Considering the future as a public good, this paper develops a reflection on the colonization processes that can turn it into a club or a private good. This paper mobilizes the notions of participatory knowledge production and local action research as a way to decolonize the future and empower imagination. This paper revisits the tenets of participatory action research as a means to achieve this objective and discusses the main features of a non-colonial anticipatory action research in the context of African futures. Findings This paper highlights the challenges associated with connecting anticipatory endeavours focusing on action research, the creation of collective intelligence and co-design, with the intention of encouraging the decolonisation process. It includes design principles and anticipates a possible process of counter-decolonization. Research limitations/implications This is a conceptual paper, which does not provide field-tested evidence. Yet, the authors hope it serves as an input enabling to design methodologies that will prevent the colonisation of the future when engaging in future-oriented research activities in Africa and elsewhere. Originality/value This paper provides an integral approach to the colonisation of the future, as a renewed old question. This paper also connects this process with a reflection on the nature of what could be non-colonizing anticipatory action research.

Using anticipation to unveil drivers of local livelihoods in Transfrontier Conservation Areas: A call for more environmental justice

“…As facilitators, we had to take leadership in the implementation of the workshops. The framework of servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1998) guided us, so that our engagement in, and the design of the Futures workshop was based on our belief that the future is a public good (Bourgeois et al, 2022). As such, it is a resource that everyone has the right to use in their own ways, provided that they are aware of the different ways of using it.…”

“…external and local) in anticipation processes such as the Futures workshops presented here has potential to start addressing the mismatch of expectations created by previous externally imposed and top‐down approaches in conservation. The current way of doing local development is not particular to the stakeholders of TFCA and applies to many sectors of development in developing countries and is anchored in the historical relationship between societies of dominant empires and colonised territories (Bourgeois et al, 2022; Dressler & Büscher, 2008). This type of behaviour that reproduces past relationships between dominant and dominated stakeholders (e.g.…”

“…Using the future is thus a transitional step that allows participants to explore pathways beyond the current trends (see Johansson, 2021 for a critical review on scenario building). We implemented it through three decolonising postulates: (i) the future does not exist in the present, only representations of the future, (ii) there is no truth about the future since there are no facts about the future and (iii) the future is a mental and social construct (Bourgeois et al, 2022). Here, it was implemented to create alternative local representations of the futures of local livelihoods, collecting and organising different perspectives through a sequence of interconnected steps.…”

“…For this reason, we posit our work as a participatory anticipatory action research for unveiling local visions and seeking recognition justice in the governance of interconnected conservation purposes and livelihoods promotion purposes. It is a means to promote a decolonial way of engaging with local stakeholders in the production of alternative futures (Bourgeois et al, 2022). Through anticipatory participatory action research as a decolonial practice connected to justice, the exploration of possible futures is a citizen‐centred approach that acknowledges the relevance of a plurality of perspectives leading to the acceptance of alternative futures.…”

“…In this case, it renders justice by unveiling and honouring the perspectives of the communities whose futures are alienated by the implicit perceptions of the future the dominant stakeholders impose on them. Four principles, which are as many operational challenges, guided the way the research was conducted within the framework of the project (Bourgeois et al, 2022). These are (i) negotiate the use of the future with local communities, (ii) recontextualise our practices, (iii) place local actors at the centre of the knowledge generation process so as to create a form of indigenous‐led transformative knowledge and (iv) embrace the concept of ‘servant leadership’ (Eva et al, 2019).…”