Table 1 Backcasting and forecasting five levels
| Â | Backcasting | Forecasting |
|---|---|---|
1. Philosophical view | Causality and teleology Partial indeterminacy Context of discovery | Causality Determinism Context of justification |
2. Perspective | Societal problem in need of solution Desirable futures Scope of human choice Strategic decisions Retain freedom of action | Dominant trends Likely futures Possible marginal adjustments How to adopt trends |
3. Approach | Define interesting futures Analyze consequences, and conditions for these futures to materialize | Extrapolate trends into the future Sensitivity analysis |
4. Method | Partial and conditional extrapolations Highlighting interesting polarities and technological limits | Various econometric models |
5. Techniques | Â | Various mathematical algorithms |