Objectives
Students get familiar with origins, key concepts, schools of thought, historical developments, current debates, and relevant actors in the field of futures studies on a level that they can articulate an analytical overview of the field. Students can reflectively discuss the starting point of contemporary futures studies: a predetermined future does not exist, and human decisions influence how the future unfolds. Students can distinguish between possible, probable, preferred and plausible futures. They can identify assumptions underlying images of the future and ways of studying futures, examine their conceptual lineages, and critically discuss their implications.
The course will educate students in following generic working life skills: analytical thinking and critical thinking. The course also gives the basics of futures skills, especially in imagining alternative futures.
Students get familiar with origins, key concepts, schools of thought, historical developments, current debates, and relevant actors in the field of futures studies on a level that they can articulate an analytical overview of the field. Students can reflectively discuss the starting point of contemporary futures studies: a predetermined future does not exist, and human decisions influence how the future unfolds. Students can distinguish between possible, probable, preferred and plausible futures. They can identify assumptions underlying images of the future and ways of studying futures, examine their conceptual lineages, and critically discuss their implications.
The course will educate students in following generic working life skills: analytical thinking and critical thinking. The course also gives the basics of futures skills, especially in imagining alternative futures.
- Teacher: Markku Wilenius