Studying the future in the present moment

Anthony Hodgson

Chapter 6 in Handbook of Futures Studies, 2024, pp 66-79 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter considers the questions ‘are there different kinds of future and if so are there different ways of accessing those futures?’ Answers to these questions are considered from the perspective of the nature of time and the phenomenology of consciousness Time is redefined as multidimensional: (succession) plus (potential) plus ableness-to-be (action). The futures practitioner or decision maker is considered as a second-order anticipatory system described through an anticipatory cognition model. This anticipatory present moment (APM) - its structure and operation - is described in more detail as a way of explaining mental time travel. Futures studies is now seen as a second-order discipline (drawing on second-order cybernetics) where the perception of the observer is integral. Agency facing the unknown in multidimensional time increases the possible sources of information from the future. A more complete view of futures studies combines deterministic futures, open futures and transgressive futures represented by three horizons of paradigm change.

Keywords: Business and Management; Development Studies; Economics and Finance; Environment; Innovations and Technology; Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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