Table 1 Modified from Mannermaa 2006:3
Futures thinking* | Prevailing (representative)democracy* | Value added by DD |
|---|---|---|
Long range; decades or more | Short range; parliamentary cycle (frequently four years) | - Detaches (when required) the issue from the temporal and structural linearity expectations of policy formation - Advances the multisectoral, deliberative participation of expertise, citizens and administration - Offers a variety of methods of serving diverse participative purposes |
Multisectoral systems thinking | Sectoral “not my job” -thinking | |
New modes of thinking and organizing societal activities are born from the conditions of the information society and its followers | Modes of thinking and organizing societal activities (eg. political party structure) comes from the agrarian and industrial eras | - Allows the issues to function as outliers of pivotal attendance: participation beyond constituencies - Addresses complexity by a wide range of spectrums - Offers theoretical and practical experience in conscious involvement and facilitation of varied expertise (margins) and polarized groups (enclaves) |
Complex societal reality; difficult to perceive the big picture | Simplifying issues; political temptation to sell easy solutions to the citizens | |
Perseverance - “sometimes it is necessary to abstain now in order that the better fruits could come later” | Short-sightedness - “we want prizes and satisfactions now” | - Provides a theoretical background and design for ○ constituting societal values to function as a basis of societal policy-making ○ tolerating uncertainty by exploring possibilities beyond restraining limits ○ promoting the emerging or undercurrent issues to surface ○ ideological dialogue with emphasis on scientific and societal perception outside or inside political preferences |
Change – accelerating change, unpredictable surprises | Status quo, “stick to your position”, predictable trends | |
Visions; goals and value discussions producing them | Modern information society has blurred old ideologies, new ones are still unborn | |
Proactivity – “we make the future”; futures analysis of the key factors in the operating environment and our own inspiring visions form a basis for our strategies to take over the future | Opportunism or passivity – we “drift into the future”; inspiring ideological visions of the future of our societies are lacking | - Advances societal proactivity by contributing to multi-voiced and future-oriented dialogue |