There is a technique called the "Future Workshop" which is intended to be a democratic way for citizen groups to have a say in decisions about future visions. The technique falls under the rubric of participatory design (PD) and you can find references to it or related methods in the PD literature (I'll list the specifics, but my PD books are at work now).
Here is a good article which describes the method. I think that there are variations on this methods that look at near, mid, and far future visions. You might be talking about the far future; this method seems more appropos for the near or mid future though the technique below would work for the distance future if you bring in the groups of participants that you mention (scientists, politicians, aesthetics experts, ......) http://www.die-bonn.de/esprid/dokumente/doc-2004/apel04_02.pdf (Heino Apel, The Future Workshop) The three steps in the method are: 1. The Critique phase (brainstorming the current issues about the problem; clustering of related phases, evaluation of issues) 2. The Fantasy phase (imagination inspiration exercises; turn critiques from phase 1 into opposites or starting points, brainwriting, role playing, painting or drawing future ideas, fairy tales or fantastic stories, role playing futures, creation of an idea store 3. The Implementation phase (evaluate ideas from the idea store with regard to realistic constraints, pick out best ideas, develop them more concretely, choose one or more ideas to develop in detail, build an action plan about how to move to the future vision. Chauncey On Feb 1, 2008 8:17 AM, Sunandini Basu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Will > This is where I came across Futures Research (it's not a new thing; the > article was published in 2003) > http://tinyurl.com/2oluak > > as the article cites - "...futures studies is the principled study of the > possible, probable, and preferable future of institutions and societies, and > the steps required to bring about those futures....Rather, futurists tend to > look at futures that are 10 or more years away, examined through the lenses > of demographics, technology, the social sciences, aesthetics, industry, > geopolitics and ecology...Futures work can inform design in a powerful way > by giving designers a playground, a set of methods, provocation and > permission to think as broadly as possible." > > Hope this helps, > Soo > > > > > On Fri, 1 Feb 2008 00:59:54, Will Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Could you amplify your question - what is Futures Research? > > > > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > > Posted from the new ixda.org > > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=25443 > > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > > > > > -- > "The details are not the details. They make the design' - Charles Eames > **************************************************************************** > Sunandini Basu > Interaction Designer > **************************************************************************** > > ________________________________________________________________ > *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* > February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA > Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
