A cross-disciplinary field that evolved from state planning, technological forecasting, normative futures, and post-colonialism that addresses possible, probable, and preferred futures. Futures studies posits that there is no single future, but that many possible alternative futures exist, that the future cannot be predicted, and that visioning preferred futures play a role in creating alternative futures.
Published in Chapter:
When Things Fall Apart: Global Weirding, Postnormal Times, and Complexity Limits
Christopher Burr Jones (Walden University, USA)
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-7727-0.ch007
Abstract
The chapter addresses the challenges facing first responders and public administrators due to accelerated warming, global weirding, and the limits to complexity. Similarly, these same challenges are also likely to have an impact on the ability of governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations to implement and realize the sustainable development goals and their 169 targets. The chapter focuses on the state of critical infrastructure, primarily in the USA, and the maintenance and sustainability of the physical systems of energy distribution, transportation, communication, and other basic services that support economic development and social systems. The chapter posits the need to explore these themes through the lens of futures studies and the need to envision and create preferred futures.