Futures Research Unpacked

• #19 - Collective Sensemaking and Reframing in Futures Thinking Engagements: Lessons From a Responsible Futuring Learning Trajectory

  Join us for an insightful discussion on "Collective Sensemaking and Reframing in Futures Thinking Engagements: Lessons From a Responsible Futuring Learning Trajectory". This episode delves into how the Responsible Futuringapproach, a design-oriented method, facilitates collective sensemaking and reframing to foster futures thinking.We'll explore the paper's findings from a 4-day learning trajectory with professionals navigating digital transformations. Discover how Responsible Futuring organizes learning through four cognitive and experiential levels: understanding values, imagining, tangibilizing, and introspecting. We'll also break down its five sequential phases, from Articulating the Challenge to Reflecting and Reframing.A key takeaway from the research is the observed tendency towards solutionism among participants, where they prematurely focused on specific solutions rather than exploring broader, values-driven futures. We'll discuss this challenge, along with others such as the risk of extreme future visions and the difficulty of grounding abstract principles in everyday realities. Finally, we'll cover the paper's critical recommendations, including the need for iterative guidance, careful zooming processes to manage actor inclusion/exclusion, and clearer goals for speculative activities to enhance relevance. Tune in to understand how these insights can inform future-oriented activities in lifelong learning!Ref:Matos‐Castaño, J., Huinink, M., Zaga, C., & Van Der Voort, M. (2025). Collective Sensemaking and Reframing in Futures Thinking Engagements: Lessons From a Responsible Futuring Learning Trajectory. FUTURES & FORESIGHT SCIENCE, 7(1), e70002. https://doi.org/10.1002/ffo2.70002

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• #18 - Avoiding Nightmare Forests: Insights From a Co‐Creative Workshop

  Join us for an insightful discussion as we unpack the research paper "Avoiding Nightmare Forests: Insights From a Co‐Creative Workshop". This episode explores the critical challenges facing Nordic forests, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and the balance required for a sustainable forest-based bioeconomy.We delve into a unique methodology: a co-creative workshop using a backcasting approach where research scholars were tasked with imagining undesirable, "nightmarish" future scenarios for Nordic forests. The goal was to identify what futures to avoid and then develop strategies to counteract them.Discover the key fears expressed by participants, such as:An adverse intensive forestry scenario leading to loss of biodiversity, no timber supply, and increased pressure from environmentalists putting all forests under protection.Scenarios of damaged forests and landscapes, invasive species and diseases, and the mass extinction of forest-dependent species.Crucially, the episode highlights the workshop's key findings, revealing that despite these fears, participants largely agreed on the importance of multifunctionality and the delivery of multiple ecosystem services as vital for the future sustainability of Nordic forests. We'll discuss the risk-mitigation strategies proposed by the scholars, which include:Adopting hybrid forest management approaches to preserve high-value biodiversity.Implementing precautionary measures in forestry decisions.Prohibiting practices like monocultures, clear-cutting, and peat mining.Promoting diverse tree species composition and continuous cover forest management.Emphasizing active engagement in governance through deliberative and participatory decision-making processes.Tune in to learn how imagining a "nightmare" future can be a powerful tool for creating a shared vision and identifying concrete actions to steer Nordic forests towards a more resilient and sustainable path.Ref:Nebasifu, A., Ekström, H., Iliev, B., Pihlainen, S., Linser, S., Polo‐Villanueva, F. D., Viljanen, A., Charlier, M., Rahman, Md. R., Niedzialkowski, K., Kuhlman, J., Assmuth, A., Garfield, D., D’Amato, D., & Droste, N. (2025). Avoiding Nightmare Forests: Insights From a Co‐Creative Workshop. FUTURES & FORESIGHT SCIENCE, 7(2), e70010. https://doi.org/10.1002/ffo2.70010

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• #17 - Participatory Methods in Corporate Foresight: A Systematic Literature Review of Case Studies and Guidelines for Reporting

  Unpacking Participatory Methods in Corporate ForesightJoin us as we dive into a critical systematic literature review by Delhaes, Vieira, Pimenta, and Oliveira that examines participatory methods in Corporate Foresight (CF) case studies published between 2003 and 2023.Despite case studies being essential for generating insights into CF research and demonstrating foresight approaches in practical contexts, the authors reveal significant challenges and gaps in how these studies are documented.In this episode, we'll explore:The landscape of Corporate Foresight: Where CF case studies are applied across diverse industries, particularly in technology-focused sectors like ICT and Automotive, and how they primarily support strategic and technology development decisions within companies.The surprising lack of innovation: Discover how the application of participatory methods is often limited to traditional setups, with workshops and interviews being the most frequently used methods, and a notable absence of emerging technologies like advanced data analytics or AI.Critical documentation gaps: We'll highlight the paper's key finding that few case studies comprehensively describe their participatory component, making it difficult to understand their design, implementation, and replicability. This often stems from a focus on sharing "best practices" rather than rigorous scientific reporting.The solution: PMDT: Learn about the Participatory Methods Documentation Taxonomy (PMDT), a practical guideline proposed by the authors to help researchers and practitioners better document participatory methods, enhancing transparency, replicability, and learning from future CF case studies.Tune in to understand the state of participatory methods in Corporate Foresight research and how improved documentation can lead to more insightful and verifiable studies.Ref:Delhaes, J. M., Vieira, A. C. L., Pimenta, J. F., & Oliveira, M. D. (2025). Participatory Methods in Corporate Foresight: A Systematic Literature Review of Case Studies and Guidelines for Reporting. FUTURES & FORESIGHT SCIENCE, 7(2), e70011. https://doi.org/10.1002/ffo2.70011

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• #16 - A decolonial and participatory research approach to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the Amazon

  Unveiling Decolonial Futures: Empowering BIWOC in the AmazonJoin us as we dive into a groundbreaking research paper that explores decolonial and participatory approaches to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the Amazon. This episode highlights a collaborative effort with 20 Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) in Colombia's Putumayo department, who are actively fighting against the exploitation of nature.Discover how researchers and BIWOC co-created a "safe enough" border space to challenge dominant Euro-Western perspectives and foster epistemic equity. We'll discuss their innovative methodology, which combines participatory scenario-building, storytelling, and Causal Layered Analysis (CLA).Learn how this research unpacked the causes of inequity and degradation, leading to the development of three radical future visions for the Amazon: "The Amazonian Desert," "A New Age," and "The Revenge of Coca". We'll also explore the emancipation pathways for BIWOC embedded within these narratives, showcasing the power of local voices and endogenous discourses, such as the Nasa people's worldview, the Afro-descendant vivir sabroso philosophy, and Zapatista autonomy principles.This discussion emphasizes the crucial role of diverse worldviews and decolonial praxis in shaping genuinely equitable and sustainable futures, demonstrating a powerful methodological approach to include marginalized perspectives in sustainability agendas.REF:Sánchez-García, P. A., Schröter, B., Krause, T., Merrie, A. S., Pereira, L., Nielsen, J. Ø., & Loft, L. (2025). A decolonial and participatory research approach to envision equitable transformations toward sustainability in the Amazon. Futures, 172, 103638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2025.103638

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• #15 - Entrepreneurship as an Object of Hope: Affirmative Critique in the Anthropocene

  Rethink entrepreneurship for the Anthropocene! In today's podcast delves into Lauri Laine's paper, "Entrepreneurship as an Object of Hope: Affirmative Critique in the Anthropocene," a bold exploration of how our human-centric views of innovation might be failing our planet.We challenge the traditional focus on human agency in both mainstream and critical entrepreneurship studies, examining why the idea of 'saving the world' through human-led ventures could be a "harmful hope". The paper argues that if the Anthropocene is a manifestation of human agency's hegemony and destructivity towards the Earth, it becomes urgent to affirm the entrepreneurial agency of nonhuman beings. Critical Entrepreneurship Studies (CES) traditionally emphasizes human agency to unlock alternative futures, but in the Anthropocene, this conviction might be part of the problem, given the materialization of human hopes as toxic layers, global warming, and mass extinction.Instead, we explore the paper's radical call for more-than-human entrepreneurship, drawing on "end-of-the-world" theorizing and object-oriented ontology. The "end of the world" here refers not to a future collapse, but the impossibility of peaceful harmony between humans and nature, suggesting the drama has already completed. Object-oriented ontology, particularly from Graham Harman, provides a baseline for affirming what exists beyond the human, proposing that ontological change involves all kinds of objects and that humans are not ontologically special.Discover how acknowledging the irreversible impact of human activity can shift our focus from what 'could be' to what 'is,' affirming the entrepreneurial agency of nonhuman beings and even the Earth itself. This includes viewing entrepreneurship through a "ruin optic" where deorganization creates possibilities for new organization, focusing on survival rather than profit. It also involves a "temporally scaled" perspective, recognizing that nonhuman entrepreneurial agency might operate on scales ungraspable by human time.This episode will transform your understanding of how organization creation can foster coexistence rather than perpetuate anthropocentric dominance. Tune in to explore a truly 'different' future for entrepreneurship, embracing a nonanthropocentric and posthumanist understanding that extends solidarity across life forms.Ref:Laine, L. (2024). Entrepreneurship as an Object of Hope: Affirmative Critique in the Anthropocene. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4937267

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