Exploring the Future: A 200-Year Record of Expanding Competence

Joseph F. Coates and Jennifer Jarratt

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1992, vol. 522, issue 1, 12-24

Abstract: The contemporary study of the future evolved from several directions: science, technology, military and business interests, sociology, history, and a literary tradition. Futurists may be working in a variety of organizations and situations, but they share beliefs in society's ability to explore, and take responsibility for influencing, the future. Lack of imagination and unexamined assumptions often cause forecast failure. Agreement and disagreement between several futurists is explored in this article, with the warning that pushing to achieve consensus on the future may mislead in times of rapid change. Finally, several key trends for the future of the world, and of the United States, are outlined.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716292522001002 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:anname:v:522:y:1992:i:1:p:12-24

DOI: 10.1177/0002716292522001002

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().