I spoke to Doris Viljoen: Senior Futurist at the Institute for Futures Research (IFR) and lecturer in Futures Studies (FS) at the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB).
Show notes and resources:
On defining the field: Richard Slaughter: “the ultimate purpose of FS was to open out productive mind spaces, precursors of social innovations, from which more advanced stages of civilized life can emerge” - Slaughter, R.A. (2002). Futures studies as a civilizational catalyst. Futures, 34, 349-363.
On activities of a Professional Futurist: Andy Hines identifies three groups of activities:
FS as a scientific field: FS is a science and an art. It is not about predication but rather about identifying possible/multiple futures and making this part of your strategy process.
Personal exercise: on a regular basis, start asking why and what if? Why are we doing this? (For example, ask why? X5) What are my underlying assumptions?
Futures studies in South Africa: https://www.usb.ac.za/academic-programmes/academic-programmes-future-studies/
Nedlac report - Futures of Work in South Africa: https://nedlac.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Futures-of-Work-in-South-Africa-Final-Report-March-2019.pdf
Reading:
For organisations:
Podcast website: https://waitspeak.podbean.com/p/contact-1578666710/
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