by It was a great pleasure to work with futurist Richard Slaughter in curating the Knowledge Base of Futures Studies (KBFS) 2020. It brought together 31 representative best works in the field since the previous KBFS of 2005. The works were organized into four categories:
(1) foundations
(2) methods and practices
(3) synergies, case studies and implementation
(4) directions and outlooks.
The individual contributions are noted in the graphic.
This Fall I had a larger than typical Futures Reach class of 32 students (our enrollment doubled this Fall…”thanks” in part to the pandemic). Do you see the connection – 32 students and 31 articles? So students got to pick an article and at the beginning of each class, two or three of them would briefly summarize their article and lead a discussion of it. I asked them to share for five minutes and lead a five-minute discussion. The questions I asked them to consider were:
- What is relevant background on the author and why you think they wrote the piece?
- What is the key point or conclusion that the author is making?
- What are a couple of key pieces of supporting evidence? How does the author support his/her conclusions?
- What did you find interesting about the piece?
- What did you question or not agree with, if anything?
There were so many good presentations/discussions. I didn’t require a presentation deck, but the majority chose to do so. Take a peek at this nice one by student Sarah Davanzo. What great fun this was! It got students involved and exposed to a wide range of excellent foresight work in a fun and participatory way. We will do this again! – Andy Hines
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