Framework

Today I attended one of the pre-conference courses. On speaking with Susan Echard (one of the key organisers) about the purpose of Project 2058, Susan recommended I attend Dr Peter Bishop’s presentation. Peter is the current Chair of the Studies of the Future Graduate Program, University of Houston. Peter condensed his two-year course down into eight hours and provided all participants with a detailed workbook and reading list.

Previously, I had been concerned that while I had actively searched out expertise in future thinking, we still might have a few gaps both in regard to terminology and methodology. In other words, although we were a member of the NZ Futures Trust (Futures Thinking Aotearoa) and had built up an extensive library on the topic, spoken with a number of experts (who have in a number of cases reviewed our methodology) and completed literature research; there was still a risk that we might have missed something critical due to not attending any international courses.

I am pleased to report that was not the case. In fact, the framework presented by Peter towards the end of the course (see above, ’Framework’) was very close to our own Methodology. The full explanation is in our publication Project 2058 Methodology. The three parts presented horizontally in Bishops’ framework are very similar to the diagram in our framework, which is also presented in three parts, but vertically. This being said, I learnt a great deal and was very impressed with both the pace and content of the course.

Peter very kindly agreed to be videoed, and all going well we will be able to provide video footage of his presentation in the coming weeks – so watch this space.

Text and photo by Wendy McGuinness