Shaping Futures


Book Description

First published in 1998, this volume draws on studies of real-life experiences in the status passage to adulthood and argues that policies must be based on more holistic analyses of social dynamics. Karen M. Evans recognises that the time taken to reach adult status has lengthened in all the industrialised countries. At the same time, the risks for young people trying to 'make their way' have increased. How are they experiencing the new circumstances? What kinds of preparation and support do they need to become full citizens? What roles should education, training, work and the community have in providing this? As well as providing learning support, they must include measures which help to change the social and material conditions which stretch many young people beyond their capacities to cope unaided and which can defeat and ultimately exclude.




Shaping Wise Futures


Book Description

"We are poised at a crossroads between a past that is outgrown and a future we must choose. This book examines the multiple ways that wisdom, grounded in life experience, science and theoretical knowledge, can contribute to positive and sustainable local and global futures. The authors in this book have brought their thinking to various aspects of this existential challenge using the lenses of Wisdom and Wise Practice, in an effort to explore ideas by which society might make choices in planning and acting for a wiser future. Wisdom practices have developed over millennia to assist people in approaching and managing life experiences and difficulties. While such practices were originally considered the purview of academic and religious scholars; at this important time in history, it must become everyone's responsibility to wisely look ahead if we are to achieve a sustainable future for society. The authors of this book comprise international future-oriented leaders, scholars, practitioners, community members and commentators with a commitment to social justice, human service and development. The book explores the place of wisdom and wise living practices alongside other ways of knowing and acting, for shaping positive futures for people and the world we inhabit. The chapters examine major challenges across political, physical and social life worlds, aiming to promote a quantum shift in discourse and decision making to address current and future challenges. The four parts of the book follow forward thinking ideas of wise professional practice: Facing future challenges, Exploring practice pathways, Examining options and Future possibilities"--




Shaping the Futures of Work


Book Description

The widespread belief that tech-savvy, educated millennials are well positioned to handle the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution is unfounded. It does not fully grasp the reality of a flux society, where relevant technological skills and knowledge are continuously changing: no one is permanently tech-savvy. Millennials, like other generations, face the challenge of needing to continually reskill. This has compounded their struggle to begin their careers at a point when there is no longer any guarantee of lifetime employment or retirement at a set age. Shaping the Futures of Work is a timely sociological exploration of the impact of technological innovations on employment. Nilanjan Raghunath proposes that stakeholders such as states, enterprises, and citizens hold equally important roles in ensuring that people can adapt, innovate, and thrive within conditions of flux. A promising model focuses on collaboration and proactive governance. While good governance includes citizen engagement, proactive governance goes one step further, creating inclusive policies, roadmaps, and infrastructure for social and economic progress. This book reveals that lifelong learning and adaptability are imperative, even for well-educated professionals. Using Singapore and Singaporean millennials as a case study, Raghunath examines proactive governance and delivers research and analysis to elucidate career trajectories, pointing to a work ethic that aims to engage with technological futures. Looking at local and global sociological literature to confirm the need for proactive governance, Shaping the Futures of Work suggests that Singaporean millennials – and professionals around the world – need to better prepare themselves for flux, risk, failure, and reinvention for career mobility.




Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Spaces: Shaping Futures and Envisioning Unity in Diversity and Transformation


Book Description

Higher education in post-apartheid South Africa was always likely to attract academic interest, and yet there remains a dearth of research on creating teaching and learning spaces suitable for students from diverse backgrounds. Using examples from higher education institutions across the Southern African Developing Community (SADC) region, this volume explores the ways teaching and learning spaces are being used to advance the transformation agenda of higher education in these regions, and provides concrete recommendations for the future. The book is sure to appeal to academics from a variety of disciplines - from African, African American and ethnic studies to education and sociology. It will be of particular interest to teacher trainers, administrators and policy-makers working in higher education, and anyone else with a stake in managing cultural diversity in education.




Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia


Book Description

What can the generative processes of dynamic ownership reveal about how the urban is experienced, understood and made in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia? Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia provides an ethnography of actions, strategies and techniques that form part of how residents precede and underwrite the owning of real estate property – including apartments and land – in a rapidly changing city. In doing so, it charts the types of visions of the future and perceptions of the urban form that are emerging within Ulaanbaatar following a period of investment, urban growth and subsequent economic fluctuation in Mongolia’s extractive economy since the late 2000s. Following the way that people discuss the ethics of urban change, emerging urban political subjectivities and the seeking of ‘quality’, Plueckhahn explores how conceptualisations of growth, multiplication, and the portioning of wholes influence residents’ interactions with Ulaanbaatar’s urban landscape. Shaping Urban Futures in Mongolia combines a study of changing postsocialist forms of ownership with a study of the lived experience of recent investment-fuelled urban growth within the Asia region. Examining ownership in Mongolia’s capital reveals how residents attempt to understand and make visible the hidden intricacies of this changing landscape.




Exploring and Shaping International Futures


Book Description

"People who run cities like to play Simcity to find out how impossible their jobs are. Hughes gives everyone a chance to play a kind of Simplanet, with outcomes far more complex and uncertain. In the process, the book and the computer program provide a coherent path to understanding an anarchic world." --Ronald A. Francisco, University of Kansas "What will be the future of human demographic, economic, environmental, and political-social systems throughout the 21st century? Where do current changes appear to be taking us? What kind of future would we prefer? How much leverage do we have to bring about the future we prefer? Do YOU share these interests of the book? If yes, you should study the book and learn how to cope with the future with the International Futures approach (IFs) developed by the authors. This large-scale integrated global simulation modeling system is a user-friendly, professional tool for long-term policy analysis and an educational tool in universities. I had a pleasure to learn it personally by cooperating with Barry Hughes." --Pentti Malaska, Professor of MS, DrTech, futurist Honorary member of the Club of Rome What will be the long-term impact of AIDS in Africa or concentration of global oil production in the Middle East? Exploring and Shaping International Futures helps readers understand such global trends in demographic, economic, energy, food, environmental, and socio-political systems. It allows businesspeople, government officials, and others to think concretely about global futures in each of these areas. It is the only book on the market that allows readers to use a computer simulation to track global trends and to develop alternative scenarios around those trends. It is one of relatively few books that really brings computer technology into the classroom, boardroom, or policy planning commission. The International Futures (IFs) computer simulation, around which the book is built, is now widely used in policy analysis as well as education. It has been instrumental in projects undertaken by such groups as the European Commission, the U.S. National Intelligence Council, and the United Nations. After three decades of development and refinement, the computer model is now easy to access and use. Readers can access the website with the IFs computer model at www.ifs.du.edu




Shaping Regional Futures


Book Description

This book discusses the role of regional design and visioning in the formation of regional territorial governance to offer a better understanding of (1) how a recognition of spatial dynamics and the visualization of spatial futures informs, and is informed by, planning frameworks and (2) how such design processes inform co-operation and collaboration on planning in metropolitan regions. It gathers theoretical reflections on these topics, and illustrates them by means of practical experiences in several European countries. Innovatively associating ideas with knowledge, it appeals to anyone with an interest in planning experiments in a post-regulative era. It aims at an increased understanding of how practices, engaged with the imagination of possible futures, support the creation of institutional capacity for strategic spatial planning at regional scales.




Shaping Smart Mobility Futures


Book Description

Bringing together scholars from multiple fields, and using the results from a number of research projects, this book takes the discussion one step further by exploring the policy instruments available and needed for the governance of smart mobility.




The World Café


Book Description

The World Cafe is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing mutual knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. Based on living systems thinking, this innovative approach creates dynamic networks of conversation that can catalyze an organization or community's own collective intelligence around its most important questions. Filled with stories of actual Cafe dialogues in business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, this uniquely crafted book demonstrates how the World Cafe can be adapted to any setting or culture. Examples from such varied organizations as Hewlett-Packard, American Society for Quality, the nation of Singapore, the University of Texas, and many others, demonstrate the process in action. Along with its seven core design principles, The World Cafe offers practical tips for hosting "conversations that matter" in groups of any size- strengthening both personal relationships and people's capacity to shape the future together.




Shaping Tomorrow's World


Book Description

Shaping Tomorrow’s World tells the crucial story of how futures studies developed in West Germany, Europe, the US and within global futures networks from the 1940s to the 1980s. It charts the emergence of different approaches and thought styles within the field ranging from Cold War defense intellectuals such as Herman Kahn to critical peace activists like Robert Jungk. Engaging with the challenges of the looming nuclear war, the changing phases of the Cold War, ‘1968’, and the growing importance of both the Global South and environmentalism, this book argues that futures scholars actively contributed to these processes of change. This multiple award-winning study combines national and transnational perspectives to present a unique history of envisioning, forecasting, and shaping the future.