Futures
Futures stands for the many possible, plausible and desirable developments that are conceivable from today. Futures studies speaks in the plural because it is open which of them will happen, and because that also depends on who acts today. The plural keeps the space open so that alternatives can be laid side by side and compared.
Joseph Voros’s futures cone (2003) offers one way to sort futures, from possible through plausible and probable to preferable.
What happens when the plural gets lost is described in the text “Auf ein Wort #4: Zukünfte” on Einbildungskanal (2021). A doctoral thesis at the Chair of Futures Studies at FU Berlin showed how Volkswagen produces a desired future through a catalogue of criteria. Once the criteria are met, the VW future arrives, and for the sake of this one plan all other possible futures close.
The Three Perspectives on Futures build on this plural. They start where a group’s official future is rarely spoken out loud and still steers decisions.
Guiding questions
- Which future counts as the official one where you are?
- Which futures never come up in your debates?