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Futures Beyond Dystopia: Creating Social Foresight book cover

1st Edition

Futures Beyond Dystopia Creating Social Foresight

By Richard A. Slaughter Copyright 2004
    336 Pages
    by Routledge

    336 Pages
    by Routledge

    336 Pages
    by Routledge
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    How can dystopian futures help provide the motivation to change the ways we operate day to day?
    Futures Beyond Dystopia takes the view that the dominant trends in the world suggest a long-term decline into unliveable Dystopian futures. The human prospect is therefore very challenging, yet the perception of dangers and dysfunctions is the first step towards dealing with them. The motivation to avoid future dangers is matched by the human need to create plans and move forward. These twin motivations can be very powerful and help to stimulate the fields of Futures Studies and Applied Foresight.
    This analysis of current Futures practice is split into six sections:
    * The Case Against Hegemony
    * Expanding and Deepening a Futures Frame
    * Futures Studies and the Integral Agenda
    * Social Learning through Applied Foresight
    * Strategies and Outlooks
    * The Dialectic of Foresight and Experience.

    This fascinating book will stimulate anyone involved in Futures work around the world and will challenge practitioners and others to re-examine many of their assumptions, methodologies and practices.

    Part 1: Aspects of Futures Enquiry 1. A 21st Century Agenda 2. Are There Futures Beyond Dystopia? 3. Professional Standards in Futures Work Part 2. The Case Against Hegemony 4. Three Pop Futurist Texts 5. Perils of Breadth American Style Part 3. Expanding and Deepening a Futures Frame 6. Beyond the Mundane 7. Changing Methods and Approaches in Futures Studies Part 4. Futures Studies and the Integral Agenda 8. Transcending Flatland 9. A New Framework for Environmental Scanning 10. Knowledge Creation, Futures Methods and the Integral Agenda 11. Towards Integral Futures Part 5. Social Learning Through Applied Foresight 12. Futures Studies to Social Foresight 13. Emergence of Futures into the Educational Mainstream 14. Creating and Sustaining Second Generation Institutions of Foresight 15. Foresight in a Social Context Part 6. Strategies and Outlooks Conclusion: The Dialectic of Foresight and Experience 16. A 'Great Transition' or Many? 17. Futures Studies as a Civilizational Catalyst

    Biography

    Richard A. Slaughter is President of the World Futures Studies Federation and is currently Director of the Australian Foresight Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.

    'If there were a Nobel Prize for futures studies, then Richard A. Slaughter would be its first recipient. Today, nearly every serious futurist would agree that he is the leading futurist in the world.' - Wendell Bell, Yale University

    'I don't know of any intelligent person who, after studying and grasping the integral overview, chooses a narrower alternative. Richard Slaughter has done a superb job in conveying the essentials of this integral map and its application to futures studies ... Integral Future Studies is literally just beginning. This book is the first word, not the last word. But it is indeed an approach that changes profoundly the nature of the discipline'. - Ken Wilber

    'In Futures Beyond Dystopia, Dr Slaughter has created a watershed guide for the future of Futures Studies- one that builds on the past, understands the possibilities in the present, and is guided by the depth of the human spirit to imagine our inclusive visions for tomorrow.'
    'Futures Beyond Dystopia is well written, grounded, and provocative. It provides an excellent beginning agenda for diminishing the weaknesses and building on the strengths of the various Futures Studies traditions.'     -both Lynn Elen Burton, On The Horizon, volume 13 issue 3, 2005

     

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