A key aspect of the debate on structural ageing is the views of young people. This article, commissioned as one of the stimulus papers for the Queensland Government, tackles…
Abstract
A key aspect of the debate on structural ageing is the views of young people. This article, commissioned as one of the stimulus papers for the Queensland Government, tackles issues pertaining to community images and perceptions of youth, as embedded in popular media and psyche.
Details
Keywords
This article seeks to reflect on the role of key concepts in foresight and futures work. The goal is to explore a set of concepts and link them to the effects they have in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article seeks to reflect on the role of key concepts in foresight and futures work. The goal is to explore a set of concepts and link them to the effects they have in the world of foresight practice. It is argued that concepts order foresight practice and that though each foresight context and practitioner is unique, concepts bring a sense of order and coherence to foresight work and futures thinking. This reflection is placed in the context of a set of first principles the author acknowledges as his starting place for futures thinking and foresight practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of conceptual analysis.
Findings
Concepts have effects and these can be assessed based on their ability to increase social and personal resilience in contexts characterised by change, complexity and uncertainty.
Research limitations/implications
Foresight practitioners clarify their own values and ethics through reflection on the concepts they use and the processes they deploy when working with clients.
Practical implications
More reflective foresight practice; greater conceptual clarity when reflecting on and communicating/teaching foresight and futures thinking.
Originality/value
This paper offers a basis for orienting foresight work towards the broader social goal of resilience through a deepened appreciation of how concepts inform process and structure meaning.
Details
Keywords
Career education and employability have become Australian university curriculum and pedagogy priorities to meet the changing world of work and federal government parameters…
Abstract
Purpose
Career education and employability have become Australian university curriculum and pedagogy priorities to meet the changing world of work and federal government parameters linking higher education funding to graduate employment outcomes. This conceptual paper aims to present the hypothesis that emphasis on integrating career education in the curriculum can provide an opportunity to embed future-thinking concepts by reframing future-focussed career education practice to futures focussed. It proposes that using a Futures Senses lens to expand current career pedagogy liberates career education from individualised cognitive decision-making and self-analysis; to include the affective, collective imagining, ancestral voices and innate gifts.
Design/methodology/approach
A suite of five career education pedagogical tools that have been embedded by the author in the curriculum of an enabling education course in a regional Australian university; are described, analysed and reconceptualised using the Futures Senses. A Causal Layered Analysis provides a layered comparison of future-focussed and futures focussed career education.
Discussion
The discussion reflects on current pedagogical practice by the author and indicates pragmatic implications for applying a future-focussed approach to career education practice. Implementation of these reimagined activities provides an opportunity for future qualitative research.
Originality/value
Opportunity exists to leverage rising institutional demands and political agendas of integrating career education in the tertiary curriculum, as a means of embedding futures concepts, thinking and pedagogy. The reimagined activities are a pragmatic offering that can be used by educators to initiate and nurture futures thinking.
Details
Keywords
Shermon Ortega Cruz and Nicole Anne Kahn-Parreño
This paper aims to introduce, unpack, explore, make sense and share Hiraya Foresight via the Engaged Foresight approach as a futures concept, framework and methodology to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce, unpack, explore, make sense and share Hiraya Foresight via the Engaged Foresight approach as a futures concept, framework and methodology to reconceptualize foresight and reframe anticipatory processes to enable the self and communities to reimagine visions of the future. This indigenous foresight process offers to strip the husk and break the shell of conscious, colonial anticipation and reveal and liberate unconscious imagination that enables ethical aspirations to emerge.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces and examines the context, purpose and process of the four waves of the Hiraya Foresight Framework via the Engaged Foresight approach. These were constructed through the use of the Engaged Foresight approach, through workshops, a literature review and an action–learning approach. The first wave, lawak, looks into the breadth of foresight. The second wave, lalim, looks into the depth of foresight. Tayog, the third wave, looks into the peak of foresight. Finally, the fourth wave of foresight kababaang-loob contemplates the nature, values and wisdom of foresight.
Findings
This paper shares the processes, experiences and impacts through five case studies where the Hiraya Foresight Framework via the Engaged Foresight approach was applied. This paper shares the impacts of Hiraya Foresight in democratizing and indigenizing futures literacy.
Originality/value
This paper describes and offers Hiraya Foresight via the Engaged Foresight approach as an indigenous approach to decolonize futures studies and foresight practice.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to challenge the assumption that liberal education as we understand it today, is alive and well in our institutions of higher education.…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to challenge the assumption that liberal education as we understand it today, is alive and well in our institutions of higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is a reflective essay
Findings
The spirit of liberal education is alive and well but has largely fled the university and taken up residence in less formal, more flexible educational contexts.
Originality/value
This article plays the devil's advocate and argues that we need to rethink how we approach and signify “liberal education.”
Details
Keywords
This paper offers six shamanic futures concepts to augment Inayatullah's six pillars, questions and concepts of futures studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper offers six shamanic futures concepts to augment Inayatullah's six pillars, questions and concepts of futures studies.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on Ashis Nandy's use of the shaman as a futures category that posits alterity and the unknowable as the dissenting component of futures studies, six concepts (geophilosophy, rhizome, intercivilisational dialogue, heterotopia, immanence and hybridity) from poststructural thinking are proposed to offer an account of the agency‐structure interface (context) that is of practical value to futures practice.
Findings
Futures praxis is pragmatic and goal driven, seeking preferred futures outcomes for those in context. The six shamanic futures concepts further this end by outlining conceptual processes that deepen understanding of context as a co‐creative and living space.
Research limitations/implications
Futures studies is becoming increasingly sophisticated; the six shamanic concepts push practitioner's understanding of how to facilitate deep organizational change.
Practical implications
This paper provides six concepts that enable futures practitioners to better understand the nature of their own practice.
Originality/value
This paper extends Inayatullah's mapping of the futures field by suggesting six concepts that facilitate an understanding and harnessing of the potential of context.