AUGUST 15TH - 18TH 2023
In partnership with WITS School of Governance
FOR INQUIRIES OR TO REGISTER:
Participants will learn how to better harness the significant, but often hidden, power of the future to shape what people see and do, anticipate and govern. This four-day course offers participants an innovative, intensive, and extensively field-tested learning-by-doing voyage. They will discover both why it is important and how to practically distinguish different kinds of futures. Professionals from every field will gain a broader and deeper appreciation of the powerful implications that different reasons and methods for imagining the future have on their activities. Course participants acquire a greater awareness of the origins of people's hopes and fears, motivation and inspiration. As a result, after taking this course, participants are better able to invent and take advantage of change, in particular innovation. This is because futures literacy as a general competency makes it easier to reap the rewards of experiments, both successes and failures, with significant benefits for policy making and governance for agility.
The course is designed as a mix of lectures and participatory workshops. Participants will have the chance to think through, discuss, debate and present ideas on how to think about the future and how to integrate futures literacy into their pragmatic day-to-day activities at a personal and organisational level. This includes understanding futures literacy in relation to scenario planning, horizon scanning, strategic foresight, risk management etc. and how to make use of these diverse ways of imagining the future.
- Integrating futures literacy into day-to-day activities
- Anticipatory systems and processes theory
- Anticipatory governance
- Futures literacy laboratory planning, design, and execution
- Ability to detect and initiate change in day-to-day activities by becoming more sensitive to the roles that imagined futures play in determining perceptions and choices in the present.
- Ability to match the reasons and methods for imagining the future to specific tasks, from formulating strategy to leveraging uncertainty to nourish innovation and improvisation.
- Ability to become more effective and efficient at taking advantage of the power of imagined futures to facilitate shared meanings and aspirations within and across communities.
Professor Riel Miller
Course Lecturer
Is the former Head of Futures Literacy at UNESCO, a globally experienced, leading expert in the field of futures studies, founder of xperidox consultancy, which has assisted clients all over the world, including the OECD, governments, scientific organizations, and industry, to use the future more effectively. Dr Miller is an accomplished keynote speaker and facilitator. He currently holds Senior Scholar positions at the Universities of Pretoria, Wits, Corsica, Ecole des Ponts Business School, New Brunswick, and Stavanger where he is actively involved in advancing the theory and practice of the Global Futures Literacy Network and its 30+ UNESCO Chaim in Futures Studies/Futures Literacy.
Professor Geci-Karuri Sebina
Course Lecturer
Is associated with the South African Cities Network, the Wits School of Governance, UCT's African Centre for Cities, and Singularity University, and currently serves as national organiseir of the African Civic Tech Innovation Network. Her experience and interests span a range of development foresight, policy, innovation and practice topics, particularly relating to the intersection between people, place and technological change in the global south
Mr Koffi Kouakou
Course Lecturer
Is a Long Now futurist, author, storyteller and social commentator. He specialises in scenario planning, foresight studies, strategic information communications technologies for deve,topment and telecommunications adapted to sustainable environmental management issues in Africa. He is an alumnus of the Oxford University Said Business School Scenarios Programme and the Global Business Network Developing and Using Scenarios (DUS).
| DATE | TIME | TOPIC | SPEAKER |
|---|---|---|---|
| TUE AUG 15TH | 10:00 -16:00 |
Introduction to Futures Literacy (practical): This will be a practical hands on introduction to futures literacy through participation in a futures literacy laboratory which is a learning by doing collective intelligence process that involves getting participants to describe and imagine different kinds of futures. Participants will begin by describing preferred and probable futures before being presented with a reframed or "strange" future to consider. |
Riel Miller |
| WED AUG 16TH | 09:00-13:00 |
Introduction to Futures Literacy (practical): The second morning of the laboratory will typically consist of imagination around the reframed scenario and a reflection on the chosen topic in relation to the different ways of "using the future". Day 2 will also include a lecture on the theoretical foundation of futures literacy - anticipatory systems and processes theory. (Assignment: Individual reflecUon on how to "use the future" in your own personal context) |
Riel Miller |
| THU AUG 17TH | 09:00-13:00 |
Anticipatory Governance: Day 3 of the masterclass will begin looking in greater detail at how to integrate the ideas presented by futures literacy into policy debates and decision-making processes. This day will also cover how to understand futures literacy in relation to foresight, scenario planning and futures studies - and how a policy maker could make use of these diverse ways of imagming the future. (Assignment: Develop one case study within your personal or organisational context that illustrates a way that the future is used. Interrogate what type of anticipation is being used and imagine different ways that the future could be used in this example.) |
Geci Karuri-Sebina & Koffi Kouakou |
| FRI AUG 18TH | 09:00-13:00 |
Integration of Futures Literacy in Day-to-Day Activities: Day 3 of the masterclass will begin looking in greater detail at how to integrate the ideas presented by futures literacy into policy debates and decision-making processes. This day will also cover how to understand futures literacy in relation to foresight, scenario planning and futures studies - and how a policy maker could make use of these diverse ways of imagming the future. (Assignment: Develop one case study within your personal or organisational context that illustrates a way that the future is used. Interrogate what type of anticipation is being used and imagine different ways that the future could be used in this example.) |
Riel Miller, Geci Karuri-Sebina & Koffi Kouakou |
DEVELOPED ON BEHALF OF THE FUTURE AFRICA FUTURES LITERACY INCUBATOR, A COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM FOR BUILDING CAPACITY TO THINK ABOUT AND USE THE FUTURE ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT
