Topic
Futures studies
About: Futures studies is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2996 publications have been published within this topic receiving 49505 citations. The topic is also known as: futurology & futurism.
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Papers
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on a key framework of sustainability transition studies, the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP), and its potential and relationships with futures studies.
20 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss Olaf Helmer's contribution to the development of futures studies by focusing on four basic theses defining his approach: (1) Quasi-laws in social sciences and futures studies can in fact be treated in the same way that the natural laws of the physical sciences.
19 citations
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TL;DR: The need to explain the concepts and terms used in futures studies, as in other sciences, has existed for a long time as discussed by the authors. But the necessity to do so has increased since the Second World War and is clearly important in recent debates among different groups involved in the field.
19 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss Olaf Helmer's contribution to the development of futures studies by focusing on four basic theses defining his approach: (1) Quasi-laws in social sciences and futures studies can in fact be treated in the same way that the natural laws of the physical sciences.
Abstract: The article discusses Olaf Helmer's contribution to the development of futures studies by focusing on four basic theses defining his approach. (1) Quasi-laws in social sciences and futures studies can in fact be treated in the same way that the natural laws of the physical sciences. (2) In order to make predictions, one need not appeal to a strict logical derivation, as the “covering laws” doctrine of logical-empiricism suggests. (3) Prediction and explanation are not logically symmetrical as positivists believe, thus the conditions needed for explanation are not those required for prediction. (4) Local, tacit, personal and expert knowledge are crucial in developing a foresight methodology. In conjunction, these four theses open the way to a unique theory of social prediction and to variety of “unorthodox items of methodological equipment for the purposes of prediction in the inexact sciences.”
19 citations