Transforming the Future

This book presents the results of significant research undertaken by UNESCO with a number of partners to detect and define the theory and practice of anticipation around the world today.

People are using the future to search for better ways to achieve sustainability, inclusiveness, prosperity, well-being and peace. In addition, the way the future is understood and used is changing in almost all domains, from social science to daily life.

This book presents the results of significant research undertaken by UNESCO with a number of partners to detect and define the theory and practice of anticipation around the world today. It uses the concept of 'Futures Literacy' as a tool to define the understanding of anticipatory systems and processes - also known as the Discipline of Anticipation. This innovative title explores:

• new topics such as Futures Literacy and the Discipline of Anticipation;

• the evidence collected from over 30 Futures Literacy Laboratories and presented in 14 full case studies;

• the need and opportunity for significant innovation in human decision-making systems.

This book will be of great interest to scholars, researchers, policy-makers and students, as well as activists working on sustainability issues and innovation, future studies and anticipation studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351047999, has been made available under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license.

"Transforming the Future is a critically important antidote for the tired and ineffective 'strategic planning' behavior that ironically hasn't undergone a rethink about how to navigate both recurrent and unknown complexities facing our collective future. This contribution provides a must-read paradigm shift of ideas about creative anticipation for those who aspire to become effective leader-navigators." Charles E. Pascal, Professor of Applied Psychology & Human Development at OISE/University of Toronto, former Deputy Minister of Education, Ontario, Canada "Drawing on the many contacts he's made in his distinguished career at UNESCO and the OECD, Riel Miller has assembled a stunning anthology. Indispensable for any and all who are interested in futures literacy and anticipatory systems thinking." Jay Ogilvy, Dean and Chief Academic Officer, Presidio School of Management, USA and Co-founder Global Business Network "The key idea of the wise authors on futures edited by Riel Miller, is Future Literacy. Concepts, words, speech, are conditions for the futures we want, not drifting into them as slaves of technologies. Add Past Literacy, a sense of history, for a full life in all of time, as human beings. Thanks, Riel Miller, for this gift!" Johan Galtung, Founder, Peace Research Institute, Oslo, Norway "Dr. Miller and his colleagues offer powerful tools for anticipation and transformation. This book presents theoretical and practical approaches to Futures literacy as a capability, providing an important step forward in understanding how the future enters into what we see and do. Rather than simply extrapolating from the present and past, Futures Literacy diversifies why and how we envision opportunities and our role in creating them. The book's many case studies, from around the world, illustrate the power of Futures Literacy for innovation." Liisa Välikangas, Professor of Innovation Management, Aalto University & Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland "In a world in constant flux, and with new and demanding challenges, we need to think systematically and creatively about different futures and how to prepare for them. This book gives us tools to do that. Innovation Norway has used the futures literacy framework in its development of innovation policy advice. The method has helped us think differently and more creatively about challenges and opportunities and how to handle them." Anita Krohn Traaseth, Chief Executive Officer, Innovation Norway "The book provides a much-needed overview of the state of the art in futures literacy.In particular it reveals the progress that has been made in strengthening the scientific underpinnings of approaches to anticipating the future, rendering much more explicit the processes that underlie our understanding of the future and its role in the today. Moreover the case studies on futures literacy labs are rich and diverse both in subject matter and in their geographic coverage, and they offer fascinating insights into how the frontiers of the imagination about the future can be expanded in very different and varied contexts. The book is evidence of the traction that futures literacy has gained in recent years, but is also a demonstration of its potential for strategic decision making in the years to come." Barrie Stevens, former Head of the International Futures Programme, OECD "Riel Miller and his colleagues have accomplished quite atour de forcein providing us with a robustnarrative and an articulate and powerful instrumentation to help social science practitioners to make the highest and best useof futures literacy in their work. Themeaningful outillage mental they have forged promises to inspirefruitful inquiries and to improvetherebygovernance design and practical policy work." Gilles Paquet former Dean of the Faculty of Administration and Founding Director of the Centre on Governance, University of Ottawa, former President of the Royal Society of Canada "Transforming the Future highlights the importance of science and culture in futures thinking and shows how diverse communities of practice are learning 'with' the future to shape new and better future developments." Angela Wilkinson former Head of Strategic Foresight, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris "Transforming the Future at last fills a long-missing piece of synthesizing and expanding the research space around Futures Literacy. Thorough in its analysis yet broadly illustrated in its various applications, the book provides a deep yet practical overarching view of the field, and provides many tools for the reader to apply in their specific settings. The authors made the convincing argument that Futures Literacy should be a natural part of any modern curriculum." Charles Fadel, Founder, Center for Curriculum Redesign "Transforming the Future is simultaneously a clarion call for futures literacy, a wide-ranging introduction to futures studies, and an excellent field guide to engaging in anticipatory activities." Ziauddin Sardar, Director, Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies, former Editor-in-Chief of Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Future Studies "In these troubled times, this book offers a powerful framework for mixing knowledge and realism with bold and ambitious imagination for action. It invites us all to engage in the social construction of the best of possible futures." Carlota Perez, Honorary Professor, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, and at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), University College London (UCL), UK "Scientists, decision makers, practitioners and activists around the world are engaged in the pursuit of a globally agreed agenda, acting today in order to shape a more sustainable, equitable future for all. Yet we rarely question our reasons and methods for 'using-the-future'. Transforming the Future opens an innovative window on why and how humans anticipate, making the case for the development of Futures Literacy as a critical human capability. Changing what people see and do by advancing Futures Literacy might be one of the keys to realising the goals of Agenda 2030 in ways we did not and could not anticipate." Heide Hackmann, Executive Director, International Council for Science (ICSU) "Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century represents a genuine and well considered approach to improve futures thinking and to…