Showing papers on "Futures studies published in 1993"
TL;DR: The authors show that futures studies is increasingly becoming an instrument for the marginalization of non-western cultures from the future. But they also point out that an elite of white, mainly American, male scholars are being promoted, not just to exclude non-Western writers and thinkers on the future but also by almost total exclusion of women.
75 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the relationship between the two fields of activity and examined how far FS researchers use SF, and in what role science fiction is of profound importance to FS or does it detract by tainting FS with pulp image.
70 citations
TL;DR: The conceptual tools of non-linear systems dynamics, chaos, and complexity modelling are appropriate for studying such movements as mentioned in this paper, and their relevance for futures studies and their role in social innovation stems from their ability to arise at the interstices in social structures, often providing corrective feedback and creative approaches to social evolution.
59 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare the experience in applying the two methodologies and evaluate the issues as well as contexts to which the two methods can be applied in different urban communities.
Abstract: Since the middle 1970s, urban communities in Sweden have been compelled to plan under increasing political, social and economic uncertainties. After a long spell of crisis management, urban planners have come to realize the need to plan with uncertainty. That implies an explicit understanding of the implications of quantitative as well as qualitative uncertainty. Various approaches for this type of planning have been experimented with, in different urban communities. This paper discusses the application of futures studies in the Municipality of Vasteras and of the strategic choice approach in the Municipality of Koping. The aim of the comparative study is to relate the experience in applying the two methodologies and to evaluate the issues as well as contexts to which the two methodologies can be applied.
27 citations
TL;DR: The study of futures may be problematic in some respects as mentioned in this paper. But this is not a cause for concern, as significant realms of uncertainty have opened up beneath science, mathematics and the structures of the material world, even as a new interpretative sophistication has developed across the humanities.
17 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The concept of the Japanese Innovation System as discussed by the authors has been proposed to explain the Japanese competitive success in information technology; however, very few have explained it in detail, and the Japanese innovation system has not been discussed in detail in the literature.
Abstract: Many have described the Japanese competitive success in information technology; very few have explained it. This book advances our understanding by developing the concept of the Japanese Innovation System - an arrangement consisting of competing and cooperating private companies, government policy-makers and researchers, and universities. It will be of interest to all teachers, students and policy-makers interested in technological competition. An important part of the explanation of Japanese success relates to the ability to create innovations and to continually improve and update products and processes. This book shows that equally important has been the foresight of the Japanese in creating innovations for the distant future where problems of uncertainty are even more pronounced.
2 citations
TL;DR: The theory of decision making under uncertainty can be a suitable frame-work for futures studies as discussed by the authors, and the effectiveness of this approach is then discussed in comparison with other familiar methods of futures studies such as scenarios, megatrends, extrapolations, global models and evolutionary models.
2 citations
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: The Environmental Foresight Project (EFP) as mentioned in this paper is an initiative of the Department of Environment (DOE) and the Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology (CEST) to help the UK government, industry and researchers prepare for the environmental agenda of the future.
Abstract: The Department of Environment (DOE) and the Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology (CEST) initiated the Environmental Foresight Project in August 1992. The project is designed to help the UK government, industry and researchers prepare for the environmental agenda of the future. A research capacity to strategically focus the UK's science and technology investments was outlined in the government white paper entitled: "Research foresight and the exploitation of the science base" (HMSO, 1993). The process and products of the this project contribute towards the white paper. There are three volumes to this report. In volume one, the national Foresight workshop is described, and the relationship between the UK environmental foresight and the wider global sustainable development agenda is explored.
1 citations