Outline of futures studies

The following outline is presented as an overview of and topical guide to futures studies – study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures, and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. It seeks to understand what is likely to continue, what is likely to change, and what is novel.

What is futures studies?

Futures studies can be described as all of the following:

• a branch of science –
  • a branch of social science –
  • a parallel discipline to history – the field of history concerns the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. It uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events.^[1][2] Likewise futures studies uses narrative, entitled scenarios, that describe potential events and conditions over time in the future rather than in the past as history does.^[3]

"In contrast to many future-oriented organizations that think of "the future" in a singular way as determined by present trends, WFSF [and the futures field in general] encourages and promotes 'plural futures' through exploration of alternative and preferred futures."^[4]

General futures studies concepts

• 15 Global Challenges
• Accelerating change
• Actionable futurism
• Agentization
• Calculating Demand Forecast Accuracy
• Clarke's three laws
• CPFR
• Causal Layered Analysis
• Coolhunting
• Digital library (initiatives)
• Emerging technologies
  • List of emerging technologies
• End of civilization
• Eschatology
• Forecasting
• Foresight
• Future
• Future energy development
• Futures techniques
• Global Consciousness Project
• Hubbert peak
• Hubbert peak theory
• Infinite Bandwdith Zero Latency
• Integral Futures
• Kardashev scale
• Cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact
• Kondratiev wave
• Malthusian catastrophe
• Memetics – Mapping MentorshipART Memes
  • 2010: Multi-media AVATARS (Discussion)
  • DIKW – Harlan Cleveland
  • FMEA: Failure mode and effects analysis
  • GDSS: Group decision support systems
  • Interdependence
    • Social network analysis – thinkLets
    • StoryTech decision support frameworks
  • Involution (esoterism) (Anticipatory thinking)
• Moore's Law
• Morphological analysis
• Neofuturism
• Normative futures
• Omega Point
• Optimism bias
• Planetary Phase of Civilization
• Planning
• Prediction
• Prediction market
• Preferred futures
• Psychohistory (fictional)
• The Race of the Future
• Reference class forecasting
• Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
• Scenario analysis
• State of the Future
• Strategic Foresight
• Systems thinking
• Technological singularity
• Technology
• Technology forecasting
• Theory of Constraints
• Thought experiment
• Timeline of the future in forecasts
• Transhumanism
• Twelve leverage points
• Ultimate fate of the universe

Futures studies organizations

• Academy for Futures Studies, the
• Acceleration Studies Foundation
• Applied Foresight Network
• The Arlington Institute
• Association of Professional Futurists
• Australia Foresight Institute
• Australian Futures Foundation
• Bakken Museum
• Club of Amsterdam
• Club of Rome
• Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
• Finland Futures Academy
• Foundation For the Future
• The Futures Academy
• Futures Group International
• Futures Research Committee of Hungarian Academy of Sciences
• Futures Research Centre
• Futures Studies Department
• Futuribles,^[5]
• Global Business Network
• Global Change Ltd
• Global Scenario Group
• Global Scenario Group
• Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies
• Hudson Institute
• Institute for Futures Research
• Institute for the Future
• International Institute of Forecasters
• Long Now Foundation
• Kjaer Global Ltd (Anne Lise Kjaer)
• Laboratory for Investigation in Prospective Strategy and Organization
• Mankind 2000
• Millennium Project
• Moroccan Association of Future Studies
• NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
• Naval Postgraduate School
• Pakistan Futuristics Institute
• RAND Corporation
• Devi Ahilya University
• Shaping Tomorrow
• Strategic Business Insights, Inc.
• Swedish Morphological Society
• Tellus Institute
• UK Futures Analysts Network
• World Future Society
• World Futures Studies Federation

Research centers

• Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
• Futures Studies Department, Corvinus University of Budapest
• Department of Futures Studies, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India^[6]
• Futures Research Committee of Hungarian Academy of Sciences^[7]
• Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration
• Foresight and Futurology Unit, a BT Group think tank
• Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa
• Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, Virginia
• Institute for the Future, Palo Alto, California
• Laboratory for Investigation in Prospective Strategy and Organization, CNAM Paris^[8]
• National Intelligence Council, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Washington DC,^[9]
• Tellus Institute, Boston MA
• UK Horizon Scanning Centre, London^[10]
• The Futures Academy, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
• SUBITO! Research&Futures, Europe/Norway^[11]
• Zukunftsinstitut, Europe/Germany^[12]
• proGective, Europe/France^[13]
• World Futures Studies Federation, world^[14]
• Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment, Europe/Germany^[15]
• Future-Institute, Europe/Germany^[16]

Academic programs

See also: Acceleration Studies Foundation's annotated list of 10 primary and 60+ secondary graduate futures studies programs.

• Australia: Australian Catholic University
• Australia: Swinburne University of Technology
• Argentina: Universidad Nacional de La Plata^[17]
• Australia: Curtin University of Technology^[18]
• Australia: University of Sunshine Coast
• Canada: Futurismos, OCAD University^[19]
• Colombia: Universidad Externado de Colombia^[20]
• Colombia: Uniandes^[21]
• Czech Republic: Charles University of Prague
• Finland: Finland Futures Academy, FFRC, Turku School of Economics and Business Administration^[22]
• France: CNAM / LIPSOR^[23]
• Germany: Institut für Zukunftsforschung und Technologiebewertung, Berlin
• Hungary: Corvinus University of Budapest^[24]
• India: Devi Ahilya University [M. Tech. Futures Studies and Planning]
• India: University of Kerala^[6]
• Italy: Gregorian University^[25]
• Mexico: Monterrey Institute of Technology^[26]
• Pakistan: Pakistan Futuristics Institute
• Romania: Babes-Bolyai University
• Russia: Moscow State University
• South Africa: Stellenbosch University^[27]
• South Korea: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Taiwan: Tamkang University^[28]
• Taiwan: Fo Guang University^[29]
• USA: Global Options^[30][31]
• USA: University of Hawaii^[32]
• USA: University of Houston^[33]
• USA: Stanford University,^[34] a program that seems both critical and normative because of its work with futurists and designers.
• USA: Regent University^[35]

Futurologists

Futures studies publications

Books

• The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
• Brave New World
• The Communist Manifesto
• Future Frequencies
• Future Primitive
• Future Shock
• Futurewise
• Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead
• Limits to Growth
• Macroshift
• Our Final Hour
• Phoenix: A Tale of the Future
• The Revenge of Gaia
• The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
• The Skeptical Environmentalist
• The Third Wave, Alvin Toffler
• Visions of the Future in the Last Century
• Analyzing and Modeling Global Development
• Physics of the Impossible
• Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100
• Y = Arctg X: The Hyperbola of the World Order

Periodicals and Monographs

• European Journal of Futures Research ^[54]
• Five Regions of the Future^[55]
• Forecasting
• foresight^[56]
• FutureOrientation^[57]
• Future Orientation Index
• Future Survey
• Futures
• Futures Research Quarterly^[58]
• Futuribles
• Futurics^[59]
• Futurist^[60]
• GTI Paper Series
• Integral Futures^[61]
• International Journal of Forecasting^[62]
• International Review of Strategic Management^[63]
• Journal of Futures Studies^[64]
• Long Range Planning^[65]
• State of the Future
• Technological Forecasting and Social Change
• WFSF Bulletin^[66]

See also

• List of futurologists
• List of Theory of Constraints topics
• Outline of transhumanism

References

External links

• Future at DMOZ
• – list of recent publications from the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies