We
welcome resources on the following themes: Futures Thinking/ Foresight,
Design, Visual & Performing Arts, Fiction, Films/Documentaries,
Business Literature, Large Scale/Systemic Change, Technologists/
Technology, History, Sustainability & Planetary Thinking, Critical
Thinking/Theory, Reportage
The Art of Resilience, The Resilience of Art
Paper - download here. A paper on the contribution of art and culture to urban resilience and livability. This is the product of conversations that took place during two linked meetings held between June 27 and July 3, 2013, on Wasan Island on Lake Rosseau in the Muskoka region north of Toronto, Canada, hosted by the Breuninger Foundation, Musagetes, and the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation. Most of the 36 discussants came from Canada, with others from the United States, Europe, and South America. They included artists and cultural workers; representatives of private and community foundations, as well as public arts funders; architects; environmentalists; publishers; impact investors; and academics working on sustainable business, community sustainability, and arts and social change. |
Sustainability in an Imaginary World
Paper - download here. Social Sciences Humanities Research Council summary here. An excerpt from David Maggs PhD here. The goal is to create an interactive experience that is aesthetically driven, that prioritizes the capacity of the arts to engage, provoke and destabilize through its expressive powers, yet at the same time, draws audiences into an interactive, collaborative engagement with elements of future-making and sustainability. |
Diverse Resources recommended by Nicole Anne Boyer:
"Emergence, Story, and the Challenge of Positive Scenarios", Jay Ogilvy, World Futures, 70: 52-87, 2014
The Scaffolding of Imagination, short talk by Stuart Candy at Institute for the Future
"Learning to Bounce Back", Andrew Zollip, New York Times, November 2, 2012
"Airbnb And The Unstoppable Rise Of The Share Economy", Tomio Geron, Forbes, February 11, 2013
An interesting article on the new share economy as the new business trend that is steadily on the rise, where "we're moving from a world where we’re organized around ownership to one organized around access to assets".
"Your (Virtual) Future Self Wants You to Save Up", Jennifer Ludden, NPR, April 11, 2012
Based on the research paper ''Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self" by Hershfield et. al Journal of Marketing Research (November 2011)
Switch: How to Change when Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath (2010) - Switch asks the following question: Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?
"Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction and Social Dreaming" Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, MIT, December 2013
Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. Reviews here
"Theory U", Otto Sharmer, Cambridge, MA: Society for Organizational Learning, 2007
Using his experience working with some of the world's most accomplished leaders and innovators, Otto Scharmer shows in Theory U how groups and organizations can develop seven leadership capacities in order to create a future that would not otherwise be possible.
The Social Labs Revolution: A New Approach to Solving our Most Complex Challenges, Zaid Hassan (2014)
"The World Without Us", Alan Weisman, July 2007
In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.
The Geography of Hope, Chris Turner
CHRIS TURNER is one of Canada's leading writers and speakers on sustainability and the global cleantech industry. His latest book is The Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy (Random House Canada 2011).
"Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age", Clay Shirky
Ethics/Philosophy
Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation, Jonathan Lear, 2008 http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Hope-Ethics-Cultural-Devastation/dp/0674027469
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor's amazing review of Radical Hope:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2007/apr/26/a-different-kind-of-courage/
Creating Better Futures, Jay Ogilvy, 2002
In Creating Better Futures, Ogilvy presents a profound new vision of how the world is changing--and how it can be changed for the better. Ogilvy argues that self-defined communities, rather than individuals or governments, have become the primary agents for social change.
Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change, Adam Kahane, 2008
To create lasting change we have to learn to work fluidly with two distinct, fundamental drives that are in tension: power—the single-minded desire to achieve one’s solitary purpose; and love—the drive towards unity.
Past Project Resources: https://app.box.com/files/0/f/1806905835/Futures
World Changing Online Magazine: An online, open-source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. http://www.worldchanging.com/
Green Futures is the leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures. Founded by Jonathon Porritt in 1996, it is published by Forum for the Future. Every issue is packed full of stories, comment and insight on topics ranging from clean energy and smart design, to food and finance in aFan of magazines changing world. http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures
Punch Drunk Theater in New York
"Emergence, Story, and the Challenge of Positive Scenarios", Jay Ogilvy, World Futures, 70: 52-87, 2014
The Scaffolding of Imagination, short talk by Stuart Candy at Institute for the Future
"Learning to Bounce Back", Andrew Zollip, New York Times, November 2, 2012
"Airbnb And The Unstoppable Rise Of The Share Economy", Tomio Geron, Forbes, February 11, 2013
An interesting article on the new share economy as the new business trend that is steadily on the rise, where "we're moving from a world where we’re organized around ownership to one organized around access to assets".
"Your (Virtual) Future Self Wants You to Save Up", Jennifer Ludden, NPR, April 11, 2012
Based on the research paper ''Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self" by Hershfield et. al Journal of Marketing Research (November 2011)
Switch: How to Change when Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath (2010) - Switch asks the following question: Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?
"Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction and Social Dreaming" Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, MIT, December 2013
Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. Reviews here
"Theory U", Otto Sharmer, Cambridge, MA: Society for Organizational Learning, 2007
Using his experience working with some of the world's most accomplished leaders and innovators, Otto Scharmer shows in Theory U how groups and organizations can develop seven leadership capacities in order to create a future that would not otherwise be possible.
The Social Labs Revolution: A New Approach to Solving our Most Complex Challenges, Zaid Hassan (2014)
"The World Without Us", Alan Weisman, July 2007
In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us.
The Geography of Hope, Chris Turner
CHRIS TURNER is one of Canada's leading writers and speakers on sustainability and the global cleantech industry. His latest book is The Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy (Random House Canada 2011).
"Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age", Clay Shirky
Ethics/Philosophy
Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation, Jonathan Lear, 2008 http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Hope-Ethics-Cultural-Devastation/dp/0674027469
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor's amazing review of Radical Hope:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2007/apr/26/a-different-kind-of-courage/
Creating Better Futures, Jay Ogilvy, 2002
In Creating Better Futures, Ogilvy presents a profound new vision of how the world is changing--and how it can be changed for the better. Ogilvy argues that self-defined communities, rather than individuals or governments, have become the primary agents for social change.
Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change, Adam Kahane, 2008
To create lasting change we have to learn to work fluidly with two distinct, fundamental drives that are in tension: power—the single-minded desire to achieve one’s solitary purpose; and love—the drive towards unity.
Past Project Resources: https://app.box.com/files/0/f/1806905835/Futures
World Changing Online Magazine: An online, open-source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. http://www.worldchanging.com/
Green Futures is the leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures. Founded by Jonathon Porritt in 1996, it is published by Forum for the Future. Every issue is packed full of stories, comment and insight on topics ranging from clean energy and smart design, to food and finance in aFan of magazines changing world. http://www.forumforthefuture.org/greenfutures
Punch Drunk Theater in New York