Shows
Futures Research Unpacked#23 - Feminist Futures as Unthought FuturesWelcome to an episode where we explore Haya Al-Noaimi's compelling article, 'Feminist Futures as Unthought Futures,' published in the Journal of Futures Studies. This discussion critically examines the tension between dominant neoliberal future visions in the Gulf states and the urgent need for feminist, human-centered approaches through education.In this episode, we'll delve into:Al-Noaimi's argument that feminist futures extend beyond gender equality to encompass a vital project of decolonizing the future.The anti-feminist nature of neoliberalism, particularly in postcolonial contexts like the Arab Gulf, as it prioritizes market logic, privatization, and individualism over human and e...2025-07-0314 minFutures Research Unpacked#22 - Feminizing FuturesWelcome to a episode where we explore Nur Anisah Abdullah's groundbreaking research paper, 'Feminizing Futures,' published in the Journal of Futures Studies. This essential work dives deep into how contemporary futurists define and integrate feminism into their professional practice.In this discussion, we'll uncover:The diverse perspectives of eleven futurists on what feminism means to them and why they embrace it, responding to Ivana Milojević's "The Hesitant Feminist's Guide to the Future".Their critiques of patriarchal systems and the drive for a more holistic, systemic change that extends beyond traditional gender issues to include cultural r...2025-07-0318 minFutures Research Unpacked#21 - The Futures Telescope: A Dynamic Tool for Exploring The Space of Possibilities"Dive into the Futures Telescope, an innovative framework for futures thinking that challenges traditional linear views of the future. This podcast explores how the Futures Telescope moves beyond static predictions by merging structured foresight with subjective perspectives.Discover how this dynamic tool, built on complexity theory, helps practitioners explore multiple futures by actively adjusting for personal biases—referred to as the "ocular lens"—and cultural paradigms—the "cultural lens". We'll discuss its iterative methodology, designed to foster collective sense-making and enable the co-creation of adaptive, pluralistic futures.Learn how the Futures Telescope helps navigate the "thick present"...2025-07-0214 minFutures Research Unpacked#20 - Revisiting the Use and Utility of Domain Mapping: A Comparative Study of the Future(s) of Diplomacy and International AffairsWelcome to Futures Research Unpacked! This episode dives into the crucial, yet often overlooked, role of domain mapping within strategic foresight. We unpack a unique research paper that empirically evaluates domain mapping's utility by analyzing years of exercises with Canadian public servants.Discover how domain mapping serves as a prerequisite for robust foresight, helping to conceptually frame complex topics like the future of diplomacy and international affairs. The research highlights the fascinating concept of 'thematic shifting' – how experts' perceptions evolve over time regarding key areas such as technology, values, economics, public health, and national security.Plus, gain...2025-07-0215 minFutures Research Unpacked#19 - Collective Sensemaking and Reframing in Futures Thinking Engagements: Lessons From a Responsible Futuring Learning TrajectoryJoin us for an insightful discussion on "Collective Sensemaking and Reframing in Futures Thinking Engagements: Lessons From a Responsible Futuring Learning Trajectory". This episode delves into how the Responsible Futuringapproach, a design-oriented method, facilitates collective sensemaking and reframing to foster futures thinking.We'll explore the paper's findings from a 4-day learning trajectory with professionals navigating digital transformations. Discover how Responsible Futuring organizes learning through four cognitive and experiential levels: understanding values, imagining, tangibilizing, and introspecting. We'll also break down its five sequential phases, from Articulating the Challenge to Reflecting and Reframing.A key takeaway from the re...2025-07-0117 minFutures Research Unpacked#18 - Avoiding Nightmare Forests: Insights From a Co‐Creative WorkshopJoin us for an insightful discussion as we unpack the research paper "Avoiding Nightmare Forests: Insights From a Co‐Creative Workshop". This episode explores the critical challenges facing Nordic forests, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and the balance required for a sustainable forest-based bioeconomy.We delve into a unique methodology: a co-creative workshop using a backcasting approach where research scholars were tasked with imagining undesirable, "nightmarish" future scenarios for Nordic forests. The goal was to identify what futures to avoid and then develop strategies to counteract them.Discover the key fears expressed by participants, such as:A...2025-07-0115 minFutures Research Unpacked#17 - Participatory Methods in Corporate Foresight: A Systematic Literature Review of Case Studies and Guidelines for ReportingUnpacking Participatory Methods in Corporate ForesightJoin us as we dive into a critical systematic literature review by Delhaes, Vieira, Pimenta, and Oliveira that examines participatory methods in Corporate Foresight (CF) case studies published between 2003 and 2023.Despite case studies being essential for generating insights into CF research and demonstrating foresight approaches in practical contexts, the authors reveal significant challenges and gaps in how these studies are documented.In this episode, we'll explore:The landscape of Corporate Foresight: Where CF case studies are applied across diverse industries, particularly in technology-focused sectors like ICT and...2025-06-3018 minFutures Research Unpacked#16 - A decolonial and participatory research approach to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the AmazonUnveiling Decolonial Futures: Empowering BIWOC in the AmazonJoin us as we dive into a groundbreaking research paper that explores decolonial and participatory approaches to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the Amazon. This episode highlights a collaborative effort with 20 Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) in Colombia's Putumayo department, who are actively fighting against the exploitation of nature.Discover how researchers and BIWOC co-created a "safe enough" border space to challenge dominant Euro-Western perspectives and foster epistemic equity. We'll discuss their innovative methodology, which combines participatory scenario-building, storytelling, and Causal Layered Analysis (CLA).2025-06-3023 minFutures Research Unpacked#15 - Entrepreneurship as an Object of Hope: Affirmative Critique in the AnthropoceneRethink entrepreneurship for the Anthropocene! In today's podcast delves into Lauri Laine's paper, "Entrepreneurship as an Object of Hope: Affirmative Critique in the Anthropocene," a bold exploration of how our human-centric views of innovation might be failing our planet.We challenge the traditional focus on human agency in both mainstream and critical entrepreneurship studies, examining why the idea of 'saving the world' through human-led ventures could be a "harmful hope". The paper argues that if the Anthropocene is a manifestation of human agency's hegemony and destructivity towards the Earth, it becomes urgent to affirm the entrepreneurial agency o...2025-06-3011 minFutures Research Unpacked#14 - Creating local storylines for climate mitigation and adaptation with policymakers across Europe: a new participatory and bottom-up methodWelcome to our podcast!This episode is inspired by the paper, "Creating local storylines for climate mitigation and adaptation with policymakers across Europe: a new participatory and bottom-up method". We explore a novel, bottom-up methodology designed to help cities and regions address the urgent, yet deeply local, impacts of climate change.Join us as we unpack:The critical need for context-dependent climate policies that account for local needs and priorities, moving beyond global frameworks.How this innovative methodology uses "what-if" questions and a structured Scope-Actions-Actors-Sectors (SAAS) framework to transform policymakers' visions into actionable climate storylin...2025-06-2824 minFutures Research Unpacked#13 - The future of AI in government services and global risks: insights from design fictionsWelcome to our podcast, where we delve into the transformative future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in government services. Based on the insightful research paper, "The future of AI in government services and global risks: insights from design fictions", this discussion explores speculative scenariosto anticipate AI's profound impacts by 2050.Join us as we uncover three critical dilemmas highlighted in the research:AI's dual role: How it can enhance efficiency while simultaneously exacerbating concerns around algorithmic bias and surveillance.Human displacement: The potential for AI to displace human roles in public services, raising significant questions about accountability and transpar...2025-06-2814 minFutures Research Unpacked#12 - The metalogic futures model: a framework for transformational organizational and social changeUnlocking Tomorrow: The Metalogic Futures Model for Radical ChangeAre you ready to move beyond "business as usual" and truly transform your organization or community? In this episode, we explore the groundbreaking "metalogic futures model". Developed by Fleener, Vojnovich, and Berardinelli, this framework offers a powerful approach to navigating our complex, "postnormal times"—a world grappling with global warming, conflict, and the rise of AI.This isn't just about predicting the future; it's about actively creating transformational change. The model is built on three crucial pillars:The Metalogic Process: Drawing from Gregory Bateson's concept, th...2025-06-2714 minFutures Research Unpacked#11 - Sustainable space governance as a key to protect future generations’ rightsWelcome to Futures Research Unpacked! In this essential deep dive, we're exploring groundbreaking research from the European Journal of Futures Research: "Sustainable space governance as a key to protect future generations’ rights" by İnan-Şimşek and Atvur.The paper highlights that safeguarding the interests and rights of future generations is a pressing global concern, intensified by current actions and a focus area for the UN's Pact for the Future. Despite these efforts, protecting future generations' rights, especially in space, has become a "global gridlock" – a growing disparity between the need for global solutions and multilateral institutions' inability to...2025-06-2715 minFutures Research Unpacked#10 - How foresight has evolved since 1999? Understanding its themes, scope and focusCurious about the future of foresight? This podcast episode explores the fascinating 24-year evolution of Foresight J, a leading journal in the field. Drawing on a comprehensive bibliometric analysis from 1999 to 2022, we reveal how research themes have shifted from initial focuses on technology and economic growth to cutting-edge areas like Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, and sustainability.Discover the most impactful authors shaping foresight research, such as Saritas, Blackman, and Richardson, and identify the top contributing countries like the USA, UK, and Australia. We'll highlight the journal's consistent focus on forecasting, scenario planning, strategic planning, and decision-making, and discuss emerging...2025-06-2613 minFutures Research Unpacked#9 - Spatial Scenarios With Real‐Time Spatial Delphi and Asymptotic Consensus Analysis: An Application to Ten European Coastal CitiesHow are European coastal cities preparing for the devastating impacts of climate change by 2050?In this episode, we delve into a groundbreaking study that uses the Real-Time Spatial Delphi (RTSD) method and a novel web-based platform, the Real-Time Geo-Spatial Consensus System (RT-GSCS), to map out future climate scenarios. Learn how 167 experts from across Europe are pinpointing areas most at risk from coastal erosion, floods, and extreme temperatures. We'll uncover the innovative concept of Asymptotic Theoretical Consensus (ATC), which helps understand the dynamics, duration, and stability of expert agreement, often reaching consensus much faster than traditional methods. Disco...2025-06-2619 minFutures Research Unpacked#8 - Exploring access-based consumption in last-mile logistics: a customer foresight studyWelcome to "Future Research Unpacked". In this episode, we unpack a **pioneering study investigating how last-mile logistics companies can become intermediaries in access-based consumption**. As e-commerce surges, discover the potential for providers to offer products like **washing machines and home office furniture 'as a service'**.Based on a **strategic customer foresight study** involving a **quantitative survey of 1,000 Finnish consumers** and an **online focus group** with 10 early adopters, we reveal that **young adults and consumers in early middle age living in the city center are the most receptive user groups**. You'll learn about their **primary...2025-06-2615 minFutures Research Unpacked#7 - Virtual flying carpets and digital disaster rooms: Towards a critical analysis of immersive speculative environments in Museums of the FutureStep into tomorrow, today! A new wave of 'Museums of the Future' is transforming how we experience possible futures, using immersive virtual and mixed realities to give participants a ‘live experience’ of the future. From Dubai's ambitious gateway to the future to Helsinki's disaster resilience exhibition, these institutions are backed by significant investment and political will, acting as testbeds for powerful immersive content.But as these compelling, often state and corporate-backed environments proliferate, a crucial question arises: Are they truly empowering public imagination and fostering critical agency, or subtly imposing predetermined visions on an increasingly anxious youth populatio...2025-06-2614 minFutures Research Unpacked#6 - Strategic foresight and business model innovation: The sequential mediating role of sensemaking and learningUnlock the secrets to thriving in an unpredictable business landscape! In this compelling podcast, we delve into groundbreaking research that empirically links strategic foresight directly to business model innovation (BMI).Discover how organizations can overcome the inherent challenges and barriers of business model transformation by systematically identifying, observing, and interpreting emerging trends and weak signals of change.We'll reveal the multifaceted roles of sensemaking and learning, explaining how these critical mechanisms not only sequentially mediate the relationship between strategic foresight and BMI but also enable companies to reconfigure their value creation, proposition, and capture activities.Tun...2025-06-2619 minFutures Research Unpacked#5 - Trauma-Transformative Foresight: Exploring the Liminal Spaces between Futures Unconsciousness and Futures ConsciousnessUnlocking the Future: How Healing Trauma Ignites ForesightJoin us as we explore the groundbreaking concept of "trauma-transformative foresight," a powerful approach integrating trauma healing with futures thinking. Discover how unresolved past traumas can constrain our ability to envision positive futures due to shared brain regions for past and future thinking. Drawing insights from a study with Kenyan youth and the Kumekucha Quest program, we'll reveal how community-led healing fosters a profound shift from "futures unconsciousness" to "futures consciousness" across critical dimensions like agency, optimism, and systems thinking. Learn how this transformation is not just about individual well-be...2025-06-2413 minFutures Research Unpacked#4 - The Ways of Informatization in Foresight Activities: Informatization in ForesightIn a world grappling with unprecedented uncertainty – from global climate change to emerging pandemics and geopolitical instability – how do we truly prepare for the future? Join us for a deep dive into Éva Hideg's groundbreaking paper, "The Ways of Informatization in Foresight Activities: Informatization in Foresight," which unpacks the new wave in foresight activities.This episode explores the critical distinction between digitization (converting data to digital form) and informatization(the fundamental societal shift where new info-communicational technologies and AI change how entire fields operate, bringing new possibilities and ways of working). Discover how foresight is being transformed into an online...2025-06-2415 minFutures Research Unpacked#3 - Pastcasting: engaging with seemingly unreachable futuresEver feel like addressing the environmental crisis or other massive societal transformations seems utterly unreachable? Our latest "Deep Dive: Unpack This Paper" episode explores "Pastcasting: engaging with seemingly unreachable futures", a novel and powerful methodology that flips traditional futuring on its head.This paper introduces pastcasting as an innovative approach designed to make urgent societal transformations, like achieving global sustainability goals, concrete and actionable. Instead of predicting the future, pastcasting invites participants to imagine complex problems as if they have already been solved in an alternative, more desirable present. They then collaboratively 'pastcast' what specific actions were taken...2025-06-2313 minFutures Research Unpacked#2 - ParEvo: A methodology for the exploration and evaluation of alternative futuresWelcome back to our show.Today, we're zeroing in on ParEvo, an online methodology designed to help us think more comprehensively about the future. Unlike traditional approaches that often focus on a single, desired outcome, ParEvo offers a complementary perspective by exploring a wide range of possible futures.So, what exactly is ParEvo? It's a participatory online process that generates diverse future narratives, not to predict a single outcome, but to identify a rich array of possibilities that need consideration. Participants start with a "seed text" and anonymously and independently extend the narrative, building a tree str...2025-06-2322 minFutures Research Unpacked#1 - Strategic foresight, knowledge management, and open innovation: Drivers of new product development successIn today's hyper-competitive markets, product innovation isn't just an advantage—it's a necessity for survival. But how can firms consistently develop new products that truly hit the mark?This episode dives deep into a groundbreaking study that uncovers the powerful interplay between strategic foresight, knowledge management (specifically knowledge exploration and exploitation), and open innovation in driving new product development (NPD) success.We'll explore how strategic foresight directly impacts open innovation, enabling firms to anticipate future trends and proactively shape their innovation efforts. Discover the crucial, balanced roles of knowledge exploration and exploitation in fostering open in...2025-06-2313 min