Elsevier

Futures

Volume 16, Issue 4, August 1984, Pages 401-404
Futures

New directions for futures research —setting the stage

https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-3287(84)90103-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Futures research is currently in a state of abeyance and may well be approaching a critical crossroad. In order to survive it needs to dispense with its tendency to be ‘all things to all people’, dealing with almost any activity that involves the future, and define for itself a unique and synthesizing role within a larger forecasting and planning framework. The primary focus of futures research in the next decade should be in the public sector where the need is greater, however a clear separation must be maintained between its advocacy (value-driven) activities and those that are conceptual and analytical.

References (3)

  • Roy Amara

    The futures field: searching for definitions and boundaries

    The Futurist

    (February 1981)

    The futures field: how to tell good work from bad

    The Futurist

    (April 1981)

    The futures field: which direction now?

    The Futurist

    (June 1981)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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  • Mind the gap! Backcasting local actors’ climate transition in Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm

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    In this paper, the Sjöstad’s actor network – ElectriCITY and its affiliated partners – is studied as meta-governance and ‘governance without government’. A general purpose of futures studies is to explore possible, probable and preferable futures (Amara, 1984). Scenario building is a method for exploring different futures.

  • The future of foresight professionals: Results from a global Delphi study

    2015, Futures
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    By the 1980s, however, Amara characterized futures research as still searching for definitions and boundaries to establish a unique role among existing institutional functions of forecasting and planning. No mention of the formalization of foresight into a profession was offered (Amara, 1981, 1984). By that time, however, the first international directory of individuals active in futures work was published (McHale & McHale, 1977).

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