What will the world look like in 10, 30, or 50 years, and how can we think about the future without a crystal ball? This course introduces futures thinking and foresight as practical ways to engage with uncertainty and today’s major challenges, from climate change and artificial intelligence to inequality and global conflict.

Rather than predicting the future, we focus on how future scenarios are studied and used in research, policy, and real-world decision making. Students will work with futures methods and theories to analyze change, question assumptions, and build their own scenarios around global problems. The course emphasizes creativity and hands-on work, often challenging traditional academic approaches.

Over six lessons we will explore:
– How do we study what we do not know?
An introduction to futures thinking and foresight, questioning prediction myths, future fallacies, and dominant narratives.
– How does change happen?
Trend analysis, emerging issues, and debates about power, politics, and forces shaping the future, including problems we may not yet see.
– Futures thinking and methods.
Learning key methodologies through case studies and creative exercises, with students beginning projects on a global issue of their choice.
– Creating responsible futures.
Building scenarios while questioning whose futures are imagined, who is left out, and who carries responsibility and challenging colonial narratives.
– Current debates.
Applying foresight to issues such as conflict, inequality, sustainability, and new technologies through practical case studies.
– Practical applications.
Developing and presenting future scenarios, testing foresight tools, and reflecting on how futures thinking changes problem solving.

Classes are discussion-based and hands-on, using group work, simulations, and short exercises. No prior knowledge is required. Curiosity and a willingness to challenge your ways of thinking are enough. By the end of the course, students will have practical tools for engaging with uncertainty and complex global challenges.