Borderless Higher Education 2011

Perspectives on the Future: The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, UK.

The launch of the Borderless: Perspectives on the Future series appropriately marks the start of a new decade for the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, as well as what might be considered its second phase. Featuring personal reflections on the ʻbig issueʼ trends now facing borderless higher education, this inaugural Borderless version overviews change witnessed in the year just gone and predicts what to expect in the year ahead.

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Climate Futures (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2009)

This paper points to the value of broadening the palette of approaches to climate change futures beyond the dominant methods of empiricist predictive trends and expert scenarios. The climate change discourse is contextualized within the field of futures studies and explores potential points of dialogue between a number of futures approaches and the most prominent of the climate protection work. Plus a case study of community based participatory approaches involving community scenario writing and community visioning is introduced. This enacts a collaborative engagement between futures researchers and climate-vulnerable communities.

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Evolution of Consciousness and Paradigm Change (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2013)

The last few years have seen leading thinkers in many fields of scholarly endeavour (including complexity science, ecology, education, futures studies, integral studies, philosophy, psychology, spirituality studies and systems theory) claim that the fragmented, mechanistic and materialistic ways of thinking of the last century are no longer sustainable. As Einstein put it a century ago, “the significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”

Several attempts to create knowledge-bridges between disciplines have emerged in the second half of the 20th century. These approaches seek to counterbalance the excesses of fragmentation, specialisation and reductionism in the dominant worldview.

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Foresight Maturity Model (Terry GRIM 2009)

Abstract
This paper offers an approach to address the absence of a measurement system for the futures / foresight discipline. The measurement system, based on a successful model used for other complex disciplines, provides a developmental approach for foresight practices. The Foresight Maturity Model (FMM) defines best practices for the foresight field and measures the competency of those practices. It’s intended to support practitioners as well as consumers of foresight services.
Keywords: foresight, measurement, practices, taxonomy, improvement

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Future Higher Education USM 2007

University Sains Malaysia (USM) Study of HIgher Education Futures

The five scenarios we have conceptualised will surely have implications on the way we operate and approach the business of providing quality education. In a nutshell, these five alternative scenarios describe three main paradigms on the possible future of higher education in USM: (1) the market-centred paradigm, as envisioned in the student-led a’ la carte university, invisible university, and state-led university, (2) financial-centred paradigm, as envisioned in the corporate-led university, (3) and creator-centred paradigm, as envisioned in the scholar-led (autonomous) university.

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Futures of Education for Rapid Global-Societal Change (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2012)

Education today in most of the world is more suited to the nineteenth century industrial era than it is to the twenty-first century. There are three key aspects to this insight. Firstly, knowledge is evolving. The fragmentation of knowledge through specialization is widely regarded as being unsuited to the complexity of the twenty-first century by scholars and thinkers from many fields Yet education is still largely a piecemeal affair.

What do today’s educators know about, and think about, these challenges? What is the role
of educational futures in these major developments? How can education transform itself to incorporate these new insights?

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Futures Studies Theories and Methods (Sohail INAYATULLAH 2013)

Futures studies is the systematic study of possible, probable and preferable futures including the worldviews and myths that underlie each future. In the last fifty or so years, the study of the future has moved from predicting the future to mapping alternative futures to shaping desired futures, both at external collective levels and inner individual levels.

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Giving Hope Back (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2005)

Extensive pdychological literature has linked hopelessnenss with depression and suicide risk for decades. A strong research and clinical base exists to target depression but there is a gap in psychological literature for targeting hopelessness, specifically. In the absence of such literature, this paper draws on research from the Futures Studies field which also records a rise in hopelessness, negativity and fear of the future among young people in the West. These phenomena will be analysed using Causal Layered Analysis, a methodology from futures studies, pointing to the long-term psycho-social impact on youth of the materialistic worldview that unferpins Wester culture. the paper will also ecplore the question “How can hope for the future be promoted?”

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Global Youth Culture (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2002)

Youth of the 21st Century: Children of the Monoculture. Attempts to classify ‘youth’ as a group belies the inherent diversity and heterogeneity, as well as the burgeoning individuality, of contemporary youth. This article presents the limitations of the current definition of ‘youth’ in light of some psycho-social perspectives, including alternative images of youth since the Middle Ages plus a critical analysis of the construct of youth including multiple diverse constructions across a range of cultures.

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Globalisation and its Impact on Youth (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2001)

Globalisation is a series of powerful processes that provide both opportunites and threats. The development model thrust upon the ‘developing’ world by the West, in the name of modernisation has been regarded for decades by many non-western sholars and activists as cultural imperialism. Globalisation has the power to exponentially increase this transgression. The tensions created have been described as forces moving towards borderless markets and global homogeneity and the rivaling process of localisation which originates in cultural, ethnic and linguistic boundaries. This paper discusses the impacts of globalisation on youth within different models of schooling, individualism versus community and the need for alternatives to existing models to provide visions of a transformed global society.

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Holistic Education and Futures Visions (Jennifer M. GIDLEY 2002)

This article raises serious questions about the adequacy of contemporary mainstream educational theory and processes to equip youth to construct and face their futures positively. Key educational ‘futurists’ have engaged in critical speculation about alternative forms of education which might better prepare youth for a rapidly changing and uncertain future, whilst also considering the needs of future generations. Several researchers recommend more holistic, integrated teaching methods using imagination, visualization, pro-social skills and specific futures methodologies. Intriguingly, many of these are crucial aspects of Steiner education.

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Katanga DR Congo, La prospective est elle happée par le présent

LA PROSPECTIVE EST-ELLE HAPPÉE PAR LE PRÉSENT ?
Si la prospective s’efforce de faire dialoguer le présent et le futur, la prise en compte du passé semble bien plus importante qu’on ne le pense parfois pour se projeter dans l’avenir. Comment « doser » et s’appuyer sur les trois temps ? Qu’en est-il de la « prospective du présent », qui reste très discutée en France ?

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Katanga, DR Congo, Au final, quels sont les apports de la prospective

AU FINAL, QUELS SONT LES APPORTS DE LA PROSPECTIVE ?

En examinant, comme nous venons de le faire, les fondements, les pratiques et les questions actuelles de la prospective, il apparaît que sa force et ses apports ne soient pas là où on les imagine de prime abord…
Une préparation et un accompagnement de l’action, mais pas seulement !
L’affirmation d’une prospective comme aide à la décision est énoncée dans de nombreuses définitions.
C’est par l’intermédiaire de l’aide à la décision que la prospective entrerait dans le champ de l’action. Mais cet objectif de la prospective ne doit pas faire oublier un autre apport qui nous parait essentiel : une compréhension renouvelée des objets en appliquant les célèbres principes de Gaston Berger : « voir loin », « voir large » et « voir en profondeur ».

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