by Zorana Antonijevic The future has always been a subject of speculation and hope, particularly within the feminist movement. As a feminist activist and scholar, I often find myself grappling with the complexities of envisioning a more just world, especially in light of the persistent violence and inequality that women face today. When invited to write about the feminist future as part of the Journal of Feminist Futures Symposium, after having reflected on the Hesitant Feminist’s Guide to the Future (Milojević, 2024), my initial reaction was despair; the challenges seem insurmountable, and the weight of historical injustices often obscures the…
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by Esmee Wilcox Do we need feminism today? To self-identify as a feminist in the UK over and above membership of other social change movements seems somewhat out of kilter. The influence of the association (misappropriation or otherwise) of the brand with a western white movement; the social media profile of the anti-women discourse amongst young men; the recognition of a spectrum of gender identities; and our awareness of a plurality of multiply held identities that affect the context of equality: have we chosen to, or even been asked to, move on? The generation of women that experienced the marriage…
by Elaine France Innovation and Entrepreneurship Consultant, Founder of Flow In Action and Flourishing Futures Collective, and Futures Thinking Guide, University of Geneva, Geneva School of Economics & Management, The Geneva Responsible Entrepreneurship Center, Geneva, Switzerland Abstract This essay is a personal exploration of the future of women’s entrepreneurship, using causal layered analysis and scenarios, to experience developing new metaphors to catalyse women entrepreneurs beyond current eco-system barriers in response to the climate emergency. Keywords Feminist Futures, Women’s Entrepreneurship, Causal Layered Analysis, Scenario Planning, Climate Emergency. Context In the Age of the Anthropocene (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000), it is widely…
by Francois Pretorius Imagine a moment in your life when change loomed large—a crossroads demanding a leap into the unknown. For me, this pivotal moment arrived a few years ago while contemplating the seemingly downward trajectory of my life, akin to a contemporary version of Lady Macbeth. In this vulnerable moment, I rediscovered a profound truth: that change, however daunting, holds the key to growth and renewal. But why does change evoke such complex emotions within us? And, crucially, how can we navigate these shifts more gracefully? These questions drove me to develop a personal approach to confront the fears…
by Mete Yazici The ongoing phase of industrial transformation, known as the fourth industrial revolution, aims to merge the physical, digital, and biological domains through extensive digital innovation (Saldanha, 2019). The pervasive incorporation of digital technologies into all facets of human existence became particularly evident following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 (Hantrais et al., 2020). Moreover, there is tough competition for users’ loyalty. MindSea (2023) reports that there are tens of thousands of applications released on smartphones annually. A typical smartphone holds over 80 apps, yet nearly 40% are removed due to lack of use. Additionally,…
by Catherine Flynn Working adults returning to school face unique challenges as they navigate their past, present, and future all at once. Like students of any age, they must learn unwritten rules, like how and when to reach out to professors and staff for help (Jack, 2016). Working adults may possess inaccurate ideas about their learning, which they may need to unlearn as they strive toward becoming expert learners who know which learning strategies best suit them (Rose et al., 2014). Fleener’s Futures Adult Learning Theory (FALT) (2021) establishes a current view of working adults’ perceptions of their probable futures.…
by Oliver Markley, PhD Introduction Many seemingly insurmountable challenges face the achievement of preferred futures that are economically just, ecologically sustainable, and socially inspiring (Markley, 2015, Inayatullah, 2018); for example, the way that social media algorithms drive increased social polarization. One of the founding tenets of the World Future Society (WFS) in 1966 was that a better future will emerge if many people explore their ideas about possible, probable and preferable, futures together—particularly about the specific types of future that they desire and/or see as most desirable for all. Whether this premise is something that holds up in practice, rather…
“The Hesitant Feminist’s Guide to the Future” explores crucial questions emerging from futures workshops and among practitioners and theorists in the field of gender studies. The monograph examines the current relevance and definition of feminism, and the degree of its inclusiveness, including the roles of boys and men within it. Additionally, it summarises how most feminists foresee a gender-equitable future and suggests cognitive strategies for facilitating positive social change toward such futures. The work begins with a historical overview, addressing some long-standing stereotypes and misconceptions about women’s and feminist movements. It then investigates the evolving nature of feminism, questioning whether…
Ivana Milojević, Sohail Inayatullah, Ora-orn Poocharoen. A two-day workshop was held on 7-8 November 2023 and was facilitated by Professor Sohail Inayatullah and Dr. Ivana Milojević from Metafuture.org as well as Professor Ora-orn Poocharoen from the School of Public Policy, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The workshop was attended by over sixty participants from diverse organizations in Thailand from governmental, academic, civil society, corporate, and non-governmental organization sectors. The purpose of the workshop was to use futures thinking to widen and deepen strategic conversations about the directions of public policy in Thailand. The School of Public Policy, Chiang Mai University and the…
Karla Paniagua & Jose Antonio Sada Conjectures about the future of food are not new. Diverse studies outline a series of concerns and expectations that researchers and working groups in different geographies have raised about the availability and scarcity of commodities, significant changes in food practices, supply chain behavior, among other aspects of the complex food phenomenon: Los futuros de la alimentación en la CDMX (Arroyo, 2018); Co-Designing Water-Energy-Food Futures (Bell, 2018); The Future of Food – Who Will Be Hungry? (Russo, 2018); Imagining transformative futuresParticipatory Foresight for Food Systems Change (Hebinck, Vervoort, Hebinck, Rutting, & Galli, 2018); Eating…