Monday, November 23, 2009
European Research Area
This account of the seminar on"How can forward looking activities support the European Research Area (ERA)?" held on 2 June 2009, Brussels, leads to a note that purports to be the Outcome of the seminar
. (I say "purports", because I am aware that several participants do not sign up to everything in this note.) The note makes a peculiar point, to whit that:
"• Forward looking activities (FLA) support long-term policy-making as they tackle fundamental issues like demographic changes, economic transformations, geopolitical issues and socio-ecological transition.
• "Forward looking" is broader concept than what is usually labelled as "Foresight". This concept includes Horizon Scanning, Forecasting, Vision-building, Participative Technology Assessment, Quantitative Models, Technology Roadmaps, and Scenario Building. Also European Technology Platforms may be considered to be under the concept of FLA. These approaches and tools have to be combined to debate and in the end to imagine the possible futures of European research, and identify such major societal challenges which should be addressed by research."
Assuming that this means what it says, it is portraying Foresight as something very narrow, that does not employ the techniques cited. This is of course incorrect, as even cursory examination of the Foresight literature - even documents poublished by the EC like the Practical Guide - will demonstrate. (The point about Technology Platforms not inherently being Foresight is right, though these platforms actually use Foresight.)
If this was a one-off misinterpretation, there would be little cause for concem. But a Google on "Forward-Looking Approaches" with SSH come up with a pattern of similar assessments, by P Valette and D Rossetti in particular. Examples:
They like to present a graphic:
This is decidedly confusing, adding category errors to the general mix-up. Specific tools like delphi and TRM are set alongside whole families of approaches like forecasting and modelling (which can contain these, just as Foresight can contain forecasting and modelling).
It is one thing for policymakers to use the language that is convenient for them politically, but quite another when research policymakers, no less, try to redefine terminology that is well-established in the scientific and practitioner communities. What does this imply for the quality and standing of EU Foresight research?
This account of the seminar on"How can forward looking activities support the European Research Area (ERA)?" held on 2 June 2009, Brussels, leads to a note that purports to be the Outcome of the seminar
. (I say "purports", because I am aware that several participants do not sign up to everything in this note.) The note makes a peculiar point, to whit that:"• Forward looking activities (FLA) support long-term policy-making as they tackle fundamental issues like demographic changes, economic transformations, geopolitical issues and socio-ecological transition.
• "Forward looking" is broader concept than what is usually labelled as "Foresight". This concept includes Horizon Scanning, Forecasting, Vision-building, Participative Technology Assessment, Quantitative Models, Technology Roadmaps, and Scenario Building. Also European Technology Platforms may be considered to be under the concept of FLA. These approaches and tools have to be combined to debate and in the end to imagine the possible futures of European research, and identify such major societal challenges which should be addressed by research."
Assuming that this means what it says, it is portraying Foresight as something very narrow, that does not employ the techniques cited. This is of course incorrect, as even cursory examination of the Foresight literature - even documents poublished by the EC like the Practical Guide - will demonstrate. (The point about Technology Platforms not inherently being Foresight is right, though these platforms actually use Foresight.)
If this was a one-off misinterpretation, there would be little cause for concem. But a Google on "Forward-Looking Approaches" with SSH come up with a pattern of similar assessments, by P Valette and D Rossetti in particular. Examples:
- Forward Looking Approaches- Rossetti NCP 29.09.09
Microsoft PowerPoint - Towards_a_new_approach_for_SSH-Rossetti
They like to present a graphic:
This is decidedly confusing, adding category errors to the general mix-up. Specific tools like delphi and TRM are set alongside whole families of approaches like forecasting and modelling (which can contain these, just as Foresight can contain forecasting and modelling).
It is one thing for policymakers to use the language that is convenient for them politically, but quite another when research policymakers, no less, try to redefine terminology that is well-established in the scientific and practitioner communities. What does this imply for the quality and standing of EU Foresight research?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Finnish/Japanese comparative Foresight study
TEKES Publications
Foresight for Our Future Society – Cooperative project between NISTEP (Japan) and Tekes (Finland) 242/2009
This sort of work is all too rare!
