jose ramos

This chapter explores parallels between action research and futures studies to suggest approaches to “Futures Action Research (FAR).” I describe links between foresight inquiry and action research, and how futures studies as a field has evolved toward participatory action modalities. I then provide examples of future studies approaches that exemplify what Reason and Bradbury call 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-person approaches to action research. Contemporary issues in the confluence of action research and futures studies are explored to provide two approaches I have developed, the Futures Action Model and Co-creation Cycle for Anticipatory Design. It concludes with a call to further develop a Futures-oriented Action Research that can more directly provide value to both fields.

Inspired by the initial World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Brazil, over the past decade over 200 local and regional social forums have been held, on five continents. This study has examined the
nature of this broader social forum process, in particular as an aspect of the movement for 'another globalization'. I discuss both the discourses for 'another world', as well as the
development of an Alternative Globalization Movement. As an action research study, the research took place within a variety of groups and networks. The thesis provides six accounts of
groups and people striving and struggling for 'another world'. I provide a macro account of the invention and innovation of the World Social Forum. A grassroots film-makers collective
provides a window into media. A local social forum opens up the radical diversity of actors. An activist exchange circle sheds light on strategic aspects of alternative globalization. An
educational initiative provides a window into transformations in pedagogy. And a situational account (of the G20 meeting in Melbourne in 2006) provides an overview of the variety of metanetworks that converge to voice demands for global justice and sustainability. In particular, this study has sought to shed light on how, within this process, groups and communities develop 'agency', a capacity to respond to the global challenges they / we face. And as part of this question, I have also explored how alternatives futures are developed and
conceived, with a re-cognition of the importance of histories and geo-political (or 'eco-political') structures as contexts. I argue the World Social Forum Process is prefigurative, as an interactional process where many social alternatives are conceived, supported, developed and innovated into the world. And I argue this innovation process is meta-formative, where convergences of diverse actors comprise ‘social ecologies of alternatives’ which lead to opportunities for dynamic collaboration and partnership.

Inspired by the initial World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Brazil, over the past decade over 200 local and regional social forums have been held, on five continents. This study has examined the
nature of this broader social forum process, in particular as an aspect of the movement for 'another globalisation'. I discuss both the discourses for 'another world', as well as the
development of an Alternative Globalisation Movement. As an action research study, the research took place within a variety of groups and networks.

The thesis provides six accounts of groups and people striving and struggling for 'another world'. I provide a macro account of the invention and innovation of the World Social Forum. A grassroots film-makers collective provides a window into media. A local social forum opens up the radical diversity of actors. An
activist exchange circle sheds light on strategic aspects of alternative globalisation. An educational initiative provides a window into transformations in pedagogy. And a situational
account (of the G20 meeting in Melbourne in 2006) provides an overview of the variety of metanetworks that converge to voice demands for global justice and sustainability.

In particular, this study has sought to shed light on how, within this process, groups and communities develop 'agency', a capacity to respond to the global challenges they / we face. And
as part of this question, I have also explored how alternatives futures are developed and conceived, with a re-cognition of the importance of histories and geo-political (or 'eco-political')
structures as contexts. I argue the World Social Forum Process is prefigurative, as an interactional process where many social alternatives are conceived, supported, developed and
innovated into the world. And I argue this innovation process is meta-formative, where convergences of diverse actors comprise ‘social ecologies of alternatives’ which lead to
opportunities for dynamic collaboration and partnership.

The advent of the network form has ushered in new practices and possibilities for participation and collaboration based on emerging on-line technologies. It is no surprise that new approaches to futures/foresight research and engagement are being developed in ...

This paper presents the theory and practice of the Futures Action Model (FAM). FAM has been in development for over a decade, in a number of contexts and iterations. It is a creative methodology that uses a variety of concepts and tools to guide participants through the conception and modeling of enterprises, services, social innovations and projects in the context of emerging futures. It is used to generate strategic options that people can utilise to build opportunities for value creation as they move into the future. This paper details examples in its development, and provides theoretical and practical guidelines for educators and business facilitators to use the FAM system in their own workplaces.

This chapter takes up the challenge posed by the editors of this volume, to articulate new forms of critical social and community work thinking and practice which engages both with the need to provide conceptual leadership in transforming existing structures and institutions, while simultaneously providing openings for conceptual diversity, interpretive multiplicity and opportunities for agency (Briskman et al 2009). My work has focused on global problems which affect most countries today, namely: challenging neo-liberalism and articulating alternatives to it, the co-optation of political power by moneyed interests and the need to strengthen democracy, the problem of social atomisation and consumerist driven individualism and the need to develop peer-to-peer and solidarity cultures, and the ecological crisis and the need to create ways of living which are in genuine balance with our integral life support systems. As might be recognised from this litany of issues, my work and research, initially connected to the World Social Forum but now with a variety of communities, has been typified by conditions of high cultural and conceptual diversity (Ramos 2010). Because of this, my work has simultaneously engaged with both the question of developing agency that can create and transform global structures and systems, within communities in which there are a wide variety of interpretations on what those structures are, and diverse visions for change. This chapter provides an overview of this work from both the inner (or epistemological) dimension, and outer (or ontological) dimension of the practice. This practice can be described as ‘meta-networking’ for systemic change.

This chapter presents peer to peer theory and practice in the context of alter-globalization and planetary perspectives on change. It begins through a short elicitation on peer to peer theory. It then synthesizes a dialogic engagement between P2P theory and nine perspectives on planetary change: reform liberalism, post-development, relocalization, cosmopolitanism, neo-marxism, engaged ecumenism, meta-industrial, autonomism / horizontalism, and co-evolutionary perspectives. The chapter then presents a synopsis of a ground breaking effort in the application of P2P theory, the FLOK (Free Libre Open Knowledge) project in Ecuador, which provides a concrete example of P2P as an alter-globalization practice.

Provides an outline of issues and challenges in the futures of work, critiquing the logic of neoliberalism through the lens of the metaphor or musical chairs, reviewing recent trends and fads, and proposing a framework for a commons economy. Covers issues and ideas such as: Used Futures, Oligarchy, Chamber of the Commons, Platform Co-operativism, Cosmo-localism, Post-growth, Peer-to-Peer Revolution, Transnational Collectives and Open Money Pro-commons.

This essay details my own learning and experiences with respect to intuition and futures studies. The essay is in part an auto-ethnographic narrative that attempts to situate my own personal experiences in a broader cultural context. It also describes intuitions’ pivotal role in both bringing me to futures studies and guiding me within futures studies. I employ the voice dialog perspective of Hal and Sidra Stone (1989) to shed light on intuition’s place in an ecology of ‘inner’ selves, and I also employ the action research framework developed by Reason and Bradbury (2001) to make sense of intuition’s place in an approach to triangulation for futures research.

This essay was inspired by the possibility that futures studies methods, theories and frameworks could shed some light on science fiction, in particular contemporary science fiction cinema – to act as a window into contemporary culture. Much is written about our future from the vantage point of futures studies, from literature on megatrends to scenarios of the near and long term future. And still more is written about science fiction genre, which arguably grapples most with complex issues and social and technological transformation. And yet still more is narrated and imagined by science fiction about our futures – from space operas, to robotic soap dramas, dystopian noir, cautionary allegory, and psychohistory. But what is written about science fiction from the vantage point of futures studies? Could futures studies be used to shed light on science fiction, to interpret science fiction and derive insights about ourselves?
My interest is in a proposition. That contemporary filmic science fiction may tell us more about ourselves than the future per se. And by extension, the proposition that popular filmic science fiction is as much or even more about our collective unconscious, rather than the actual future. This is not a new idea. Many have commented on science fiction’s role in addressing contemporary issues (Nandy in Ramos, 2005, p.434). The novelty this essay attempts to engage in, is in using futures studies methods, theories and frameworks as the conceptual leverage to do this kind of interpretive work. In the case of this essay, futures studies approaches are applied toward understanding the film Interstellar (2014).

World Wide Web technologies create fundamentally new potentials for social interaction and decision making among diverse social actors. A new generation of web technologies, accompanied by new political cultures, portends an ushering of radical transformations in democratic decision-making. This chapter asked three critical questions: 1) How do emerging web technologies deepen democratic participation, 2) How do we avoid or transform scenarios where web technologies are employed to maintain political-economic oligarchies of power?, and 3) What new political cultures or political contracts may emerge through the convergence of web technology and political engagement? This chapter used the recent precedent of Liquid Democracy on-line decision-making experiments in Germany, to answer these questions and peer into the futures of governance. The study came to the following conclusions: 1) We are witnessing a shift from formal representative democracy to situational and fluid forms of governence; 2) Along side this we are seeing a deepening of political participation, which may bring forth new political cultures and political contracts; and, 3) A number of possible scenarios emerge from the decline of formal representative democracy – A possible “Liquid Revolution” where online governance has transformed democracy;  a “Steady-state Oligarchy” where pseudo-representative and oligarchic powers persist; a “Partner State” where representative and on-line variegated governance is blended;  and a “War of the Worlds” where statist and variegated governance online systems aggressively compete for power.

Over the course of the last half century, a number of practices were developed that connect foresight with governance. From the early development of technological forecasting and anticipatory democracy, to municipal and regional (local) approaches and futures commissions, to the more recent development of transition management, integrated governmental foresight, and to the cuttingedge in networked/crowd sourced approaches, traditions and discourses that link foresight and governance have evolved considerably. The purpose of this article is to review these various traditions and discourses to understand the context within which different approaches can be valuable, and expand the basis by which we can develop Anticipatory Governance strategies. Not all strategies are appropriate in all contexts, however, a major proposition in this paper is that we can design strategy mixes that can combine a number of traditions and discourse in creative ways that allow practitioners to address complex, fuzzy and wicked challenges that singular approaches would have a harder time addressing successfully.

This paper presents the theory and practice of the Futures Action Model (FAM). FAM has been in development for over a decade, in a number of contexts and iterations. It is a creative methodology that uses a variety of concepts and tools to guide participants through the conception and modeling of enterprises, services, social innovations and projects in the context of emerging futures. It is used to generate strategic options that people can utilise to build opportunities for value creation as they move into the future. This paper details examples in its development, and provides theoretical and practical guidelines for educators and business facilitators to use the FAM system in their own workplaces

This article asks questions about the futures of power in the network era. Two critical emerging issues are at work with uncertain outcomes. The first is the emergence of the collaborative economy, while the second is the emergence of surveillance capabilities from both civic, state and commercial sources. While both of these emerging issues are expected by many to play an important role in the future development of our societies, it is still unclear whose values and whose purposes will be furthered. This article argues that the futures of these emerging issues depend on contests for power. As such, four scenarios are developed for the futures of power in the network era using the double variable scenario approach.

This article has direct relevance to those interested in the recent controversy initiated by NSA whistleblower Dave Snowden and new knowledge of widespread surveillance of citizens by the National Security Agency.

Warnings of emerging global crises seem to be coming more frequently every passing day. Research on the current and potential impacts of climate change make IPCC reports look conservative. We're told that our oceans are under threat from overfishing and acidification. Human's impact on the planet's ecosystems continues to rise. Meanwhile, a financial crisis looms menacingly. Western nations stare down the barrel of potential economic catastrophe. Trillions of dollars / euros are whisked away from the public purse to recapitalize banks and governments, whose money mysteriously disappeared into hedge funds, and to appease the short term profit motive of investors.

In this essay I touch on a few of the insights I’ve gathered over the last decade in the futures studies field, hopefully of benefit for thinking about the next generation of practitioners. I don’t think the emerging generation of practitioners is any different than any
previous. Each has to invent itself the same as the last one. This is therefore just one dip into a conversation for generational evolution.

At first it was just a trickle, and then a torrent. At first a few experimented with carving our social life outside the dominant industrial system. But as the system began to capsize on the rocks of ecological and social ruin, it became an exodus. Necessity was the mother of invention, and people began to find their power by co-creating new ways of being and living, relating and transacting. People became new producers in an ecosystem of collaboration: cultural, political and economic. People began to join this new movement and create and demand the innovation of a multitude of deeply democratic social processes and institutions for the protection and production of the commons. Another World is Possible was no longer a slogan, but increasingly created in our life worlds, from the personal to the political.

In this paper, the World Social Forum Process (WSFP) is situated within contemporary and historical utopian contexts. In so doing the article puts forth the proposition that the WSF sits toward the end of two great utopian projects of the West, state socialism and economic liberalism. Through its tacit and explicit cri- tique of both, the WSF re-configures utopianism around the principle of diversity. In counter-distinction to this, however, a number of forces are articulating totalities, utopian conceptions of alternatives to corporate global- isation. The WSF process is therefore becoming the site of a commingling between a utopianism of diversity and a utopianism of totality, in the movement toward alternative globalization.

Futures education has been around for almost four
decades. Beginning in the US in the 1960s, it has
now been developed in many different countries. The
history of its unfolding has been well documented,
for example by Richard Slaughter (2004). In
Australia, considerable work has been done at the
primary and secondary school level (Gidley, Bateman
and Smith 2004). Even though it is a relatively new
academic tradition, there are now over 50 universities
around the world that teach futures studies (Ramos
2005). Some are just one or two classes at the
bachelors level, brought into a university by an
enthusiastic professor. Others incorporate futures
studies into existing programs, for example in the
areas of planning, business, environmental
sustainability, economics, development studies,
science and technology studies. There are also formal
Masters level programs, with degrees entitled such
as: futures studies, strategic foresight, prospective
(in France), prospectiva (in Latin America), and
prognostics (in Eastern Europe).There are also
numerous doctoral dissertations around the world
with a focus in futures studies.
Contributing to this debate, the approach to
futures education in this article will consider Freire’s
(1970, 1973) work on conscientisation in the
contexts of critical futures studies and, further, discuss
some potentials of Freirian-style action research in
futures studied. This framework offers practical and
theoretical possibilities in futures education toward
the development of democratically-oriented
consciousness and the real issues and challenges we
face as communities and as humanity in the 21st
century.

This article puts forward the proposition that the confluence of action research and futures studies can be seen across a number of domains: political, organisational, grassroots, global and individual. While this confluence embodies an heterogeneity of practices, it is their underlying approach, the processes used, which are shared. Identifying both the many distinctive practices in their unique contexts, and their more homogeneous processes is the primary task of this paper. Aspects of this confluence are explored as they relate to social change, empowerment, humanisation, ways of knowing and ethics.

This paper examines the role of generational change in the emergence and continuity of the WFSF, generational change as situated through macro-historical perspectives, generational value shifts and their implications for the WFSF, and asymmetries and potentialities revealed through youth futures literature. It argues that the development of the WFSF in the longer term will require a generational approach that incorporates greater youth and student participation.

This study explores how education and development in the skills and knowledge of foresight, innovation and enterprise (FI and E) relate to the empowerment of young individuals with respect to creating a new venture. In 2003, three groups of young persons aged between 13 and 18 years participated in a program designed for empowerment. An evaluation was conducted nine months later that provided useful insight into the impact of the education design, content and delivery. This research provides deeper insight into the way FI and E education can be used to create empowerment through the derivation of a framework that addresses entry, process and agency factors.

Our exploration of the intersections between foresight, innovation and entrepreneurship has consistently raised issues with respect to education. This paper outlines one such exploration that poses specific challenges for those wanting to educate in the intertwined fields of foresight, social innovation and entrepreneurship.
The formation of a social venture relies, in part, upon the participants reaching a shared understanding of purpose and process. Yet, at the intersections of innovation and foresight, there exists circumstances of great complexity and uncertainty and therefore it raises the question; how can shared insight and understanding be created? If the response to complexity and uncertainty is to seek simplicity and order by finding commonality and consensus, then what is lost and what is risked? Can shared understandings of purpose and process be arrived at by embracing complexity and uncertainty in its entirety rather than striving for a distilled and incomplete common ground and if so how? These questions led us to explore the process of dialogue and communication of a team in its formative stages. Our interests were not centred upon the behavioural characteristics of the individuals in the ‘forming’ stage of group dynamics but rather the process of cognitive and linguistic turns, the wax and wan of ideas and, the formation of insight and shared meaning.

This study asks the central question, ‘Are social entrepreneurs using foresight to create innovation based on triple bottom line sustainability measures?’ and ‘if so, how?’ Sustainability is the emergent criteria for evaluating many aspects of the social world, including corporate governance, health systems, economics, social welfare and the environment. All the while, innovation is one of the key factors in the constitution of our social worlds, be this legislative, organisational, social or technical change. Therefore, it appears that the drive toward sustainability should be coupled with an emphasis on innovation – in particular creating innovation toward sustainability. Yet unexamined assumptions exist behind such language. Sustainability is a concept within the context of ‘the future’, requiring one to question ‘what is the future’ – in essence a utilisation of the strategic capacity for foresight. Foresight, moreover, ranges from the tacit assumed personal foresight of the ordinary individual to the specialised foresight of the professional forecaster, scenario planner, or foresight practitioner.

This report presents emerging theory and case studies in the development of a new economic model. The model is interchangeably called both “Design Global - Manufacture Local” (DG-ML)  and “Cosmo-localization”,  and describes the development of an open design to localized production process. We argue it represents a fundamental shift in the economic production paradigm. This report begins by describing the model and providing emerging theory. The report then moves on to two case studies, FarmHack  and L’Atelier Paysans, both examples in the domain of agriculture. The report concludes by considering strategic pathways for supporting this important avenue for human development.

Ulrick Beck's notion of sub-politics, in describing civil society's trans-national responses to the challenges of late industrial capitalism, embodies implicitly the power of civil society and the third sector to create desired social changes within a widening arc of risk horizons. Subsequent to Beck's 1999 writings, we have seen the emergence of the World Social Forum Process, which has become a platform for the global justice / alter- globalisation movement, and has worked as a catalyst in bringing together civil society / the community sector into new meta-networks, in order to address such meta-problems. A primary question explored in this paper is how communities address the large scale global challenges of neo-liberalism turn neo-conservatism, through a globalisation from below. This paper addresses this question through an examination of the World Social Forum Process as complex agent of social change, arguing that the World Social Forum is a platform for social innovation, which can be seen through a 'layered complexity' perspective. Causal Layered Analysis, and complex adaptive socio-ecological systems perspectives, offer layered frameworks that can be used to understand the World Social Forum Process as platform for social innovations. From this view Social Forums can be seen to be platforms for fast moving resistance, to deeper policy, law and institutional innovations, and on to even deeper worldview shifts, epistemological reconstructions (the epistemology of the Global South), and a culture of 'horizontalism', and through to the emergence of deep narratives for a Global Commons, people’s power and building a planetary society, paralleled by new myths and metaphors. Using this approach, Beck's notion of sub-politics is expanded, as the construction of a cosmopolitan world order takes on a multi-causal and multi-temporal dynamic.

This draft chapter uses a planetary perspective to explore the futures of cities in the 21st Century. The chapter explains the emerging planetary context, spatial, temporal, heuristical and epistemological, and the contradictions which cities face within this new context. Using Galtung's contradictions based scenario approach, three futures for cities are explored, arguing for both a new vision and cosmolocal development of trans-local solidarities.

This article explores counter hegemonic temporalities, examining nine discourses for what they have to offer an emerging narrative and temporality for the commons. Using these discourses, historical dimensions of the commons, present issues, and future visions of commoning are developed. The article ends by proposing some strategic considerations regarding the timescales within which different commoning projects might be understood. The article offers a starting point with which to dialogue and debate the narrative and strategic development of post-capitalist commons-nurturing political economies and societies.