Barbara M Bok

This thesis investigates futurists’ capacity to engage with the future. Inspired by actor–network theory (ANT) and the laboratory studies of Karen Knorr-Cetina and Bruno Latour, it identifies and characterises two aspects of capacity to engage with the future. These aspects are the relational and processual, with a focus on the future and time. The relational aspect is identified through drawing on Knorr-Cetina’s work on the post-social epistemic object relations. The processual aspect is identified through drawing on Latour’s work on the construction of facts involving inversion and the process of turning time.
The theoretical framework that informs this study combines ANT (through the work by Michel Callon, Latour and John Law) and process philosophy, and is particularly concerned with those principles relating to time. This thesis begins by reviewing the FS literature through the analytical lens of Latour’s characterisation of modernity as being the ongoing separation of the social and nature through the work of purification and translation. This thesis identifies similar work of purification and translation in FS and contends that futurists are being distracted by this from resolving the problems they attribute to the purification work. The thesis argues that futurists could start to overcome this problem by re-establishing the connection between the work of translation and the work of purification.
This thesis develops a way through this dilemma through close analysis of empirical data on how FS students and graduates actually engage with the future. The data was collected from 28 hours of in-depth semi-structured life course interviews with students (past and present) of postgraduate futures studies educational courses internationally. The data analysis identifies two types of epistemic object relations, an unfolding relation and a co-creating relation. It also identifies two types of processes for engaging with the future, a reflection process and a process of turning to the conditions. Participant data shows that futurists’ capacity to engage with the future, for both the relational and processual aspects, are similar to but extend beyond those identified by Knorr-Cetina and Latour. Whereas Knorr-Cetina characterised scientists as ordering their relation to the future as the unfolding of knowledge towards goals or targets under controlled conditions, the research participants in this study are characterised as going beyond that. Their relation to knowledge is to be actively poised for, yet aware of, the limits to knowing and responding, and the emergence out of inexistence of new and novel events and entities from the world where they have no control. Whereas Latour identified the reflection process of researchers as the ordering and manipulating of entities along a (standard) time framework, the participants in this study go beyond that. This thesis identifies a process wherein they turn to the conditions from which the future is being generated to identify change in what appears to be stable or static. This often involves objects that specify the conditions for change without fixed time frameworks.
Comparisons between the participants at different stages of their studies suggest that futures studies postgraduate education is perhaps relevant to differences in capacity to engage with the future.

Participative modelling and simulation activities have demonstrated that social innovation is achievable for present-day problems. Such activities enable our intentional exploration of future social configurations and their consequences and thus constitute a shared space for pre-experiencing and researching arrangements before they come into being. A form of ”experiential foresight” involving combinations of social and nonsocial models is achieved by changing the roles and responsibilities of simulators/modellers and participants/customers in the simulation process supported by suitable technologies. Provides an alternative interpretation of often one-sided positivist perspectives of simulation theory and application, emphasising the emergence of reflexive social innovation in complex worlds.

Participative modelling and simulation activities have demonstrated that social innovation is achievable for present-day problems. Such activities enable our intentional exploration of future social configurations and their consequences and thus constitute a shared space for pre-experiencing and researching arrangements before they come into being. A form of “experiential foresight” involving combinations of social and nonsocial models is achieved by changing the roles and responsibilities of simulators/modellers and participants/ customers in the simulation process supported by suitable technologies. Provides an alternative interpretation of often one-sided positivist perspectives of simulation theory and application, emphasising the emergence of reflexive social innovation in complex worlds.

The guide is a planning resource for small to medium sized companies involved in the buildings sector value chain. This includes building materials suppliers, trades and contractors; transport companies and architects, engineers and other design firms. The guide is intended for building sector industry practitioners and other end users of building sector products and services, such as planners, sustainability managers and policy makers in small to medium sized enterprises and local government authorities in, primarily in Australia. Throughout the guide are examples of case studies for ideas about business best practice and experience and links to more information.

Countries around the world have recently taken significant steps to improve the energy efficiency of new buildings. Their measures have addressed energy efficiency through a variety of means, from technological improvements to enacting various regulatory requirements and establishing policy initiatives. However, a large percentage of the existing residential building stock constructed prior to the appearance of these policy measures are appreciably less efficient than most newly constructed residences. Moreover, they will continue to use significant amounts of energy long into the future.

Emerging agendas in social science are developing new methodologies to address significant contemporary challenges. These new approaches are inspiring changes in prospection methodologies that produce the status of knowledge about social futures. We stage prospection as enacting two realities: one about the phenomena being predicted and the other about the prospection enterprise. We consider three examples of current social science methodologies from a prospective stance: postnormal science, anticipation studies and science and technology studies. We illuminate their methodologies relevant to prospection and review Futures Studies / Foresight literature for evidence of the changes they are inspiring. We creatively synthesise four qualities of social prospection methodology from claims by the reviewed methodologies: thickness of relational complexes, degrees of sensitivity to how prospection is performed, openness of ecologies of practice and the extent of distributed engendering of ...