Futures studies & future literacy podcast
It is a watershed moment is the field of futures studies with the High-Level Futures Literacy Summit taking place virtually 8–12 December 2020.
In this episode Daniel speaks with Riel Miller, Head of Futures Literacy at UNESCO, Ozcan Saritas, the editor in chief of the journal Foresight, and Jonathan Calof, co-guest editor of the special issue North American Foresight.
Speaker profiles
Riel Miller is Head of Futures Literacy at UNESCO. For over thirty years he has been pioneering advances in the theory & practice of using the future as a means to improve management & public policy, with a focus on transformational leadership. Riel has designed & implemented hundreds of projects worldwide, using the future in order to change what people see and do. He is an experienced & innovative educator, a pioneer of Futures Literacy & the Discipline of Anticipation. He is widely published in academic journals & other media on a range of topics, from the future of education & the Internet to the transformation of leadership & productivity. He is an accomplished keynote speaker & facilitator. His unflagging ambition is to find ways to put the richness of complex emergence at the service of humanity's capacity to be free.
Dr. Ozcan Saritas is a Professor of Innovation and Foresight at the National Research University, Higher School of Economics (HSE), Moscow; Honorary Professor at Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, The University of Manchester; and Editor-in-chief of “Foresight” - the journal of futures studies, strategic thinking and policy. His research focuses upon innovation, policy and governance with particular emphasis on socio-economic and technological Foresight. With a PhD from the “Foresight and Prospective Studies Program,” Prof. Saritas has extensive work experience with the international organisations including the United Nations (UNIDO, UNCTAD, UNDP), OECD, and the European Commission. He has been involved in large scale national, multinational and corporate research and consultancy projects on sectors including Energy, Climate Change and Renewables, Agriculture and Food, Water Resources and Sustainability, Transportation and Automotive, Information and Communication Technologies among the others. He has published a number of articles in leading journals in the field; and has delivered keynote speeches in a number of countries across the world. Besides his research and publication activities, he designs and delivers academic and executive education courses on Foresight, Innovation Management and Strategic Planning. He has recently co-authored a book, entitled “Foresight for Science, Technology and Innovation” published by Springer, which has become one of the key readings in the field.
Dr. Calof is recognised as one of the leaders in intelligence and foresight and in particular the application of these techniques to innovation. A full professor of International Business and Strategy at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Calof combines research and consulting in competitive intelligence, foresight, collective intelligence and business analytics to help organisations develop anticipatory systems that lead to the kinds of key insights that will lead to the innovations needed for the external environment of tomorrow.
In this episode:
- What is futures studies and what does it mean to be futures literate?
- How is futures literacy applied to diverse fields?
- What are some of the hot topics in futures studies?
- What is the purpose of the High Level Futures Literacy Summit proposed by UNESCO?
- What are the key topics discussed in the North American Foresight double special issue in the journal Foresight?
- What is the future of futures studies?