A call for agile futures practice in service of transformative change

Lessons From Envisioning Positive Climate Futures Emerging From the Pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID4239583
AuthorsAnita Lazurko (0000-0003-3313-4091, University of Waterloo), Patrick W Keys, Patrick Keys (0000-0002-7250-1563, Colorado State University)
Year2022
Volume27
Issue3
Publication date2022-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueConservation Ecology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1195-5449 • E-ISSN: 1708-3087
PublisherResilience Alliance (PUBLISHER • CA)
DOI10.5751/es-13531-270310
OpenAlexW4300125494
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited25

Amid growing urgency behind the need to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the world into another crisis. Prominent conceptualizations of transformation suggest that crises like the pandemic may create windows of opportunity for transformative change, such as the scope and scale of systemic change required to address the climate crisis. Additionally, envisioning positive futures plays an important role in building shared commitment and inspiration for transformation, particularly if conducted in transformative spaces where actors with diverse framings and vulnerabilities can experiment with new practices and ideas. Emerging research demonstrates the potential for experimental futures methods to create such transformative spaces. In this study, we aimed to create a transformative space that builds inspiration and shared commitment for climate action while exploring the unique inflection point created by the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we constructed a highly creative participatory futuring process for participants involved in climate action in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region (Canada) to imagine desirable futures emerging from the crisis. Because we needed to move quickly and accommodate pandemic-related constraints to explore this unique moment in time, we also aimed to reflect on considerations for an agile futures practice in service of transformative change. Through a virtual workshop and surveys, participants envisioned future worlds in which local “seeds” of positive climate futures emerging during COVID-19 become mainstream. They also wrote science fiction stories of characters navigating those worlds. Observing artists depicted the futures through visual art. Reflections on our experience facilitating the process generated five considerations for a more agile futures practice in service of transformative change: adapt the ideal process to context-specific opportunities and constraints, align with strategic partners while ensuring everyone is in the room, underpin the process with values, treat everyone’s contributions as knowledge, and contextualize the role of inspiration as an outcome

Business · Futures contract · Mainstream · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Transformational leadership · Transformative learning · Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems · Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development · Law · Urban Green Space and Health