28 Reconciling Perspectives in Futures Research and Systems Thinking

28th Nov 2012

Authors

David Ing

Postgraduate Class Description

Finland is among leading countries in generating futures-oriented scientific knowledge and well-developed in offering a wide selection of applications in the field. Futures research is an interdisciplinary scientific field and all other sciences are relevant from futures perspectives. The aim of futures research is to analyse future developments and distinguish possible, probable and preferable futures.

Target group

Philosophical, Methodological and Pragmatic Approaches to Scientific Futures Research (3 ECTS credits) course is available for postgraduate students at the University of Turku and the nine FFA-member universities. The course is also suitable for students finalising their Master's degree and making plans about post-graduate studies and available for the personnel of the University of Turku (acquiring credits is optional). In case of making a selection among applicants, post-graduates, who perform the course, are privileged.

Pre-assignment

There is a list of literature available to the students before the intensive learning session. Students prepare presentation based on the literature (mode of presentation is specified later on). The first day in the intensive learning session is devoted to student presentations (see the programme for more details). The idea of the pre-assignment is to get a preliminary answer to a key question. This answer is sophisticated further on during the forthcoming Intensive sessions.

Citation

David Ing, "Reconciling Perspectives in Futures Research and Systems Thinking", post-graduate course on Philosophical, Methodological and Pragmatic Approaches to Scientific Futures Research , Finland Futures Academy at the University of Turku, November 28, 2012.