Social Futuring – In the Context of Futures Studies

The goal of this paper is to show how the methodology and approach of futures studies could be useful in the research of social futuring. First of all, I define futures studies and social futuring and analyse the evolution of futures studies to show how methods have changed and how they could prove useful in the field of social futuring. Furthermore, I examine individual and organizational future orientation and the related “foresight maturity model” that is linked to the idea of social futuring. I compare future orientation indices (e.g. SOFI, JKB) and point out the pros and cons of each. In addition, I also show what kinds of measurement and indices of future orientation could be used in the analysis of individual, organizational and national social futuring. The findings provide support for the argument that foresight methodology provides an appropriate toolkit for social futuring research.