The World Futures Studies Federation is a global network of leading professionals in the field of futures studies in 60+ countries. I was therefore proud to accept an offer from the Federation to be their Director of Public Affairs.
The WFSF is a UNESCO and UN consultative partner & the peak forum for futures studies scholarship. A non-commercial NGO, it offers a forum for the discussion, exploration and exchange of ideas, visions and plans for alternative futures; through long-term, big-picture thinking and radical change.
My role involves helping the team strengthen the WFSF brand and I conduct this activity in addition to my other ongoing work, including with the renowned Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.
Meanwhile, here are some photos of me lecturing about futures-literacy on courses at University of the Arts London, and Brighton University. Both cutting-edge establishments are of course deeply futures-focused, and I’ve enjoyed being an external lecturer there for years re: foresight / strategy / innovation.
At the last WFSF conference, held at the superb Stellenbosch Business School, Gabriele Rizzo presented his thoughts about ‘Foresight Capability’.
Essentially, he said that the futures field is growing fast, but fragmentation across methods and standards is outpacing the development of shared frameworks, creating real risks for rigour and practitioner development.
Inspired by the Langland’s programme in mathematics, Gabriele’s presentation argued for a united framework that bridges the methodological divides between anticipation, future literacy, future studies, strategy, and foresight, treating each as an overlapping language within a coherent body of knowledge.
Rather than flattening these distinctions, the framework uses their relationships precisely.
In his talk, Gabriele outlined the axioms and structure of this proposed framework and made the case for the World Futures Studies Federation as being the natural home for its development and governance...
…and my podcast ‘The New Abnormal’ is bought to you in association with the World Futures Studies Federation.