Futures Studies, which became an academic discipline in the 1960s, emphasizes different approaches to the future. It has been defined as “the systematic study of possible, probable and preferable futures including the worldviews and myths that underlie each future”. Inter-disciplinary undergraduate and post graduate programs in futures studies are now offered in universities across the globe.
The Federation notes that those engaged in the academic studies of the future are trained to focus on “sensing and systemic recognition of the big forces and fundamental macro trends as well as emerging weak signals”. They “identify hidden, less obvious and basic assumptions that indicate the possibility, and impossibility of various future events.”
Of the five dominant approaches to Futures Studies, it is worth noting that an integral/transdisciplinary perspective is emerging and having a growing influence. Richard Slaughter, an Australian futurist, pioneered the application of Integral Theory as developed by Ken Wilbur to Future Studies. The theory centers on a four-quadrant model of reality which requires that attention be given to the synthesis of four domains: the interior world of the individual; the exterior world of individual behavior; the collective exterior world of systems and infrastructures; and the collective interior world of the shared meaning of cultures and groupings. One academic review of Integral Futures suggests that the four-quadrant approach, with the attention it gives to subjective experience, “has gained sufficient attention to engage the thinking of a significant part of the field [of Futures Studies].”
This is reflected in the fiftieth annual World Conference of WFSF, in Paris last year when the main concept behind the program was liminality: At a time of complex, intertwined crises “we are certainly in a liminal state – a state of flux, in between worlds. Liminality is a state of emergence and becoming. A state of possibilities and of transformations, as well as a state of radical uncertainty and not knowing. A state in which how we respond to the problem – as individuals, organisations, even society – may in fact be part of the problem! A state in which the tried and true may transform into the tired and treacherous. A state that requires new questions, new perspectives, new futures to explore.” The conference addressed liminality through four themes: The futures of future studies; the futures of humanity (“exploring the liminal spaces between sustainability, equity and planetary justice”, and including Universal values and ethics); the futures of becoming’s (“exploring the liminal spaces between consciousness and spirituality”; and the futures of agency (“exploring the liminal spaces between action and responsibility”).
WFSF collaborates closely with UNESCOs work in the field of Futures Literacy, which is defined as “the skill that allows people to better understand the role of the future in what they see and do. Being future literate empowers the imagination, enhances our ability to prepare, recover and invent as changes occur.” WFSF is also actively involved in preparations for the UN Summit of the Future, emphasizing the role that global futures studies can play in shaping a sustainable and equitable future.
