Foresight Frontiers: THE UNESCO Future Lecture Series
On October 14, 2013 UNESCO will hold the second of the “UNESCO Future Lecture Series: Foresight Frontiers” and the UNESCO Future Seminar “Exploring the Attributes, Role and Organization of Horizon Scanning – With Case Studies from Africa, Asia and Europe”. The event will be from 10:00 to 13:00 (GMT+2) at the UNESCO Headquarters @ Room IX; Address: 7, place de Fontenoy 75007.
The lecture will be available via webcast on www.unesco.org.
Below are the details and background of the UNESCO Lecture Series project.
The UNESCO Future Lecture Series: Foresight Frontiers serves as a platform for sharing the latest developments in the field of Future Studies from around the world. The guiding aim of the Series is to explore how Future Studies is advancing the capacity of decision makers to use the future to understand the complex emergent present. Being able to think beyond extrapolation based on existing models is not only a necessity if humanity is to take advantage of the open character of the universe (non-deterministic, full of novelty) but also a capability that can be enhanced through the advancement and diffusion of ‘futures literacy’.
This second edition of Foresight Frontiers welcomes Anita Kelleher, Principal of Designer Futures (www.designerfutures.com.au), Chair of The Millennium Project of Australia (www.millennium-project.com) and Founding Partner of The Centre for Australian Foresight (www.cfaf.com.au), and Philine Warnke, Senior Scientist of the Innovation Systems Department, Austrian Institute of Technology (http://www.ait.ac.at). Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English and French.
In the afternoon, from 14:30 to 17:30 (GMT+2), UNESCO is organizing a UNESCO Future Seminar on the theme “Exploring the Attributes, Role and Organization of Horizon Scanning – With Case Studies from Africa, Asia and Europe” which will be held at the UNESCO Headquarters at Room VIII; Address: 7, place de Fontenoy 75007.
This seminar features Horizon scanning to detect early warning signals through the analysis of threats and opportunities. Through research, horizon scanning helps to establish strategies to anticipate and plan future action. More and more governments have conducted horizon scanning exercises to shape their strategic planning and policy formulation processes.
This informal seminar will further elaborate HS conceptual foundations, systems design and implementation issues for government horizon scanning systems.
It will feature case studies from Africa, Asia and Europe.
The seminar will involve structured conversations framed by invited speakers such as Julius Gatune of the African Center for Economic Transformation (http://acetforafrica.org) and contributor of the UNESCO/Rockefeller Global Scoping Exercise. Three internationally recognized experts will also be participating: Anita Kelleher, Philine Warnke and Pierre Rossel, Senior Scientific Fellow at the College of Management of the Ecole polytechnique fédérale of Lausanne (http://www.epfl.ch/).
Presentations by videoconference will be made by Jerome Glenn of The Millennium Project (http://www.millennium-project.org/) and Michael Jackson of Shaping Tomorrow (http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/).
Due to the limited number of seats for the afternoon seminar, participants are invited to register in advance.
For more information, please also visit the following links:
The South Africa Searchlight Project:
http://www.sampnode.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=34&Itemid=175
The Bertelsmann Foundation’s Blog:
http://futurechallenges.org/
Blog of Noah Raford:
http://news.noahraford.com/?p=1603
For queries and registration, please contact:
Riel Miller (Email: [email protected]; tel. no. 01 45 68 09 50)
Linda Tinio-Le Douarin (Email: [email protected]; tel. no. 01 45 68 17 70)