Unesco Chair in Learning for Transformation & Planetary Futures

Mission

We aim to develop a more widespread capacity for futures literacy to help people understand and contribute to transformation. We work with people in a wide variety of contexts, sectors, and levels of influence to help them become more aware of they already are ‘using futures’ and to embark on journeys to learn how to ‘use futures’ in a wider variety of ways so they can perceive more opportunities to innovate  – on personal, local and planetary levels. We do this by establishing an international futures literacy hub, advancing national foresight systems, and developing futures literacy for cutting edge innovators tackling climate change.

Futures Literacy: skills in diversifying both how and why people generate and deploy ideas, images, and models about the future.

Planetary Futures: ideas and models of how Earth and Earth’s life could be in the future, e.g., a 1.5C warmer planet in year 2100, or a future with a sustainable socio-ecological balance.

What we do

We develop theory and practices to support individual and organisational capabilities to comprehend and interpret ongoing transformation and develop a viable sense of agency towards the future. Our intention is to produce scientific knowledge about how people do and can ‘use futures’ as well as practical tools people, organizations, and governments can apply immediately.

How we do it

The UNESCO Chair in Learning for Transformation & Planetary Futures consists of three work streams, each focused on different sectors, cultural contexts, and geographical scales:

Establishing a Global Futures Literacy Hub: We are collaborating with the Dubai Futures Foundation and its Futures Academy in Dubai to establish a global futures literacy hub. It will provide research fellowships, futures literacy capability-building processes, and links between higher education institutions in Finland and the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Fostering Futures Literacy for Sustainability Innovators: We co-create processes and tools to develop and apply futures literacy to address the climate emergency. This work is conducted through the Futures Literacy across the Deep (FLxDeep) consortium co-funded by six FLxDeep partners and EIT Climate KIC.

Advancing National Foresight Systems: We research current practices and future directions of national foresight capabilities, taking Finland as a case study. This research explores the role of established public foresight and futures practices in accelerating society’s capacity to long-term transformations toward sustainable planetary futures.

Who are we

UNESCO Chairs serve as bridge builders and think tanks between academic research, civil society and political decision-making. Finland Futures Research Centre is a department of the Turku School of Economics at University of Turku. It has been home to this UNESCO Chair since 2016. The Chair was previously named Learning Society and Futures of Education (2016-2020) and was renewed as Learning for Transformation and Planetary Futures (2020-2024).

Professor of Futures Studies Markku Wilenius holds the UNESCO Chair in Learning for Transformation and Planetary Futures. Markku has worked in the field of futures research for more than 20 years. His most recent research projects handle human-centric organizational development, societal adaptation to complex transformations, the ethics of rising bioeconomy and complexity of urban futures. Markku is currently serving as the Dean of Dubai Futures Academy.

Co-Chair, Laura Pouru-Mikkola is leading the Chair work stream focusing on advancing national foresight systems. She has 10 years of working experience in foresight and futures related projects at Finland Futures Research Centre and various Finnish public sector organizations. She is also currently serving as the President of the Finnish Society for Futures Studies.

Co-Chair, Nicolas Balcom Raleigh is leading the Chair work stream focusing on fostering futures literacy for sustainability innovators. He worked for Finland Futures Research Centre for six years and has been part of projects about renewable energy, complexity, mobility, big data, and just bioeconomy. He led the FLxDeep consortium in 2020 which introduced and developed futures literacy practices for EIT Climate-KIC staff and partners. He is also Vice President (Future President) of Foresight Europe Network.

Please feel free to contact us. We are happy to tell you more and always interested in discussing cooperation opportunities.

The Chair team Nick, Markku and Laura at Global Futures Literacy network meeting at the University of Trento in 2019.