Futures Studies

What are the futures of Muslims? What are our health futures? Will meditation provide more social and economic value than current investments in biotechnologies? Can cities create alternative global futures? Do women and men see the future differently? What are the pitfalls of strategic planning? What are the futures of disability? Can futures thinking (theories, methods, processes) create institutional change? Are there methods that can unpack and transform the future instead of reinforcing business-as-usual?

"Millennium Tree" © Josephine Wall (www.josephinewall.co.uk). Used under license from Art Impressions, Canoga Pk., CA.

Welcome to Metafuture.org - hosted by Sohail Inayatullah and Ivana Milojevic, this site explores these and many more futures-oriented issues. Along with articles by Inayatullah and Milojevic, you can access material by leading futures-oriented scholars living in Australia and New Zealand, including Robert Burke, Marcus Bussey, Richard Eckersley, Jennifer Gidley, Peter Hayward, Francis Hutchinson, Rosaleen Love, Jan Lee Martin, Richard Slaughter, Tony Stevenson, Paul Wildman and David Wright.

There is also an annotated bibliography of some of the best in the futures field. But what is futures studies?  One working definition is: the study of alternative futures including the worldviews and myths that underlie them. And what is a futurist? The futurist employs time, especially future time, to transform the present. Through deeply democratic processes, the futurist helps organizations and institutions move from the default future (which is often the used or the disowned) to the preferred future. Futures studies has six pillars: Mapping the Present and the Future through methods and tools such as the futures triangle and the futures landscape Anticipation the Future  through methods such as emerging issues analysis and the futures wheel Timing the Future, understanding the grand patterns of change, macrohistory and macrofutures. Deepening the Future through methods such as causal layered analysis and four quadrant mapping Creating Alternatives to the Present through methods such as scenarios and nuts and bolts Transforming the Present and Creating the Future through visioning, backcasting, action learning and the transcend conflict resolution method.   The six pillars of futures studies are introduced in this video clip. This is a small segment of a new full-length DVD on futures studies. For more details about the futures studies DVD click here. Find out more about the six pillars of futures studies and look at the Six Pillars of Futures Studies Poster Bold Future: Futures scenarios for Gold Coast, Australia.  Video Why Futures Thinking About Ivana Milojević Ivana Milojević  is the author of Educational Futures: Dominant and Contesting Visions and co-author of Moving Forward. Forthcoming books include: Feminist Futures, Alternative Futures of Education: Pedagogies for Emergent Worlds and Neohumanist Educational Futures: Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect. She has contributed numerous articles and book chapters in the area of feminist, educational and peace futures. Dr. Milojević is a member of the Executive Board of the World Futures Studies Federation, a member of the International Peace Research Association and a Research Associate at the Australian Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. She is currently teaching courses at the University of Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast. E-mail: info@metafuture.org	New Books! Neohumanist Educational Futures: Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect Edited by Sohail Inayatullah, Marcus Bussey and Ivana Milojević Tapei, Tamkang University Press, November 2006. For more information click here.     Educational Futures: Dominant and Contesting Visions By Ivana Milojević Routledge, London and New York August 2005 For more information click here.
About Sohail Inayatullah Sohail Inayatullah has been writing in the area of futures studies for over 20 years. His articles and books are accessible from this site. Inayatullah's recent books include: The Causal Layered Analysis Reader Understanding P. R. Sarkar: The Indian Episteme, Macrohistory and Transformative Knowledge Transforming Communication: Technology, Sustainability and Future Generations (edited with Susan Leggett) Questioning the Future: Futures Studies, Action Learning and Organizational Transformation Youth Futures: Comparative Research and Transformative Visions (edited with Jennifer Gidley) He is co-editor of the Journal of Futures Studies and associate editor of New Renaissance	The Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) Reader: Theory and Case Studies of an Integrative and Transformative Methodology Edited by Sohail Inayatullah Tapei, Tamkang University Press, December 2004. For more information click here
Books and CDs by Sohail Inayatullah and Colleagues

	Free Download: Judicial Foresight in the Hawaii Judiciary. Honolulu, Hawaii, 1991. (PDF)
Introducing Futures Studies

Contact Information

If you wish to contact Sohail Inayatullah, please feel free to do so using any of the methods below.

Postal Address:
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
University of the Sunshine Coast
Maroochydore DC Qld 4558

Tel: 61 7 5430 1247
Fax: 61 7 5430 2880
E-mail Addresses: info@metafuture.org ; sinayatullah@hotmail.com