Papers by Richard Slaughter
Education for the Twenty-First Century, 2021
Education for the Twenty-First Century, 2021
Creating social foresight, 2004
This publication provides teachers and students with a practical overview of futures studies. It ... more This publication provides teachers and students with a practical overview of futures studies. It also acts as a source book for teachers and others looking for activities and material that will help to develop futures literacy in their students. The long-term goal is that of creating social foresight. To these ends it offers a tapestry of sections that weave patterns via ideas and practical action. There are five main sections: 1. Mapping Futures Studies â Key concepts 2. Context and Applications 3. Futures Concepts and Related Techniques 4. Methods 5. Futures Thinking for Social Foresight. In addition to these practical and user-friendly sections, there are a number of âreflectionsâ or short pieces that invite deeper consideration. In addition there are numerous diagrams and figures, many of which have been produced especially for this publication. Overall, Futures Thinking for Social Foresight provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to, and overview of, some of...
This article is intended primarily for those involved in some aspect of climate change but who ar... more This article is intended primarily for those involved in some aspect of climate change but who are not integral specialists. It draws on a sample of recent climate change literature for two main purposes. First, it employs integral methods to honour and explore what each has to offer, thus contributing to a larger picture. Second, it seeks to “activate ” and strengthen climate change responses at the level of social policy and action. To conserve space the literature review itself has been made available on the web. The article explores underlying patterns in this material and makes suggestions about how the integral lens can both clarify issues and promote actions that are, in some sense, “called forth ” by the threat of climate change. It concludes that the latter can also stimulate new kinds of motivation that will be needed to resolve the global crisis. KEY WORDS: climate change; literature; integral methods; support
It is startling to realise that the first attempts to teach in a specifically futures-oriented mo... more It is startling to realise that the first attempts to teach in a specifically futures-oriented mode took place some fifty years ago. Back then, far-sighted individuals could clearly see some of the challenging issues and problems that are now daily news. What is striking, however, is that despite many attempts to bring futures education (FE) fully into the mainstream of educational thinking and practice, it still remains surprisingly rare. This article takes a fresh look at what FE can offer schools, teachers and students in the early 21st Century. Futures ‘of ’ or futures ‘in ’ education? Over these decades one thing that became clear was that government departments, bureaucracies, decision-makers in school systems are much more comfortable with initiatives addressing the futures of education. The basic reason for this is that such exercises are largely extrapolative and neither question nor challenge existing practice. Futures in education introduces dynamic new features into pres...
In my view, Wendell Bell is one of the most productive, articulate and respected members of the i... more In my view, Wendell Bell is one of the most productive, articulate and respected members of the international futures community. Over several decades he has published many papers and books, culminating in his two-volume opus, Foundations of Futures Studies, which I believe has become one of the foundational texts of the field. We'd met on numerous occasions at conferences around the world and developed both a continuing dialogue and an enduring friendship. While we do not see eye-to-eye on every single subject, we both subscribe to the view that FS has a vital role to play in an ever more threatened world. I began this email conversation with reference to a book that deals with various threats facing the US itself. S: Is the United States, in your opinion, really as 'far gone' as James Howard Kunstler suggests in his book (The Long Emergency: What's Going to Happen as We Start Running out of Cheap Gas to Guzzle?)? Kunstler basically portrays the collapse of the USA (in particular) due to its development patterns, over-dependence, oil addiction, poor leadership etc. B: Although I haven't read Kunstler's book, I did read the summary of it that Kunstler wrote, which was published in Rolling Stone. It is indeed a dark picture of America "sleepwalking into the future" and most immediately facing "the end of the cheap-fossil-fuel era." It is a useful summary and reminder of the coming depletion of nonrenewable resources, which, since The Limits to Growth was published in 1972, has been researched, debated, re-researched, dissected, revised and revived. Comparing The Long Emergency to other accounts, however, I think that it gives too little credence to the serious efforts to understand and find solutions to the energy crisis; too little credit to the future effects of conservation efforts and the increasing development of nonpolluting renewable sources of energy, such as solar, wind, hydroelectric, tidal, geo-thermal, and bio-waste-fed fuel cells. So, no, I don't think that the U.S.A. is as far gone as he says. Thanks to several popular books and publications, as well as Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, most Americans today believe that global climate change and other environmental problems are real, that they result in part incompetence in dealing with the hurricane threats and recent destruction in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Gulf Coast-but you already know these things. Yet we also know of large-scale projects that have been competently and honestly carried out. And we also know of projects that were not carried out in a fully competent way, but nonetheless ended up a success. (For example, the Sydney opera house?) My hope is that we futurists might play at least a small role in reducing some of the fumbling, bumbling, diddling, and dissembling as we humans act to construct and perhaps deconstruct our future. S: Wendell, thank you for your time and trouble. Let us hope that a Renaissance in Futures Studies occurs in time to fulfill at least some of our shared hopes and aspirations!
World Futures Review, 2010
Futures, 1992
Abstract Since 1984 UNESCO has been developing a programme of prospective studies. This programme... more Abstract Since 1984 UNESCO has been developing a programme of prospective studies. This programme was re-named ‘future-oriented studies’ and is now centred around three groups of activities: a project on the futures of culture; the development of education and training with special emphasis on disseminating the methodology of future-oriented studies; and the creation of an international bibliographic database called FUTURESCO. An invitational seminar, ‘Teaching about the future’, held in Vancouver, 21–23 June 1992, was a direct consequence of the above. It was organized and hosted by UNESCO (with FUTURESCO and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO). It brought together about 20 professional futurists from Pacific Basin countries to consider a range of theoretical, practical and pedagogic issues associated with teaching futures, mainly at the tertiary level.
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Papers by Richard Slaughter