The futures of humanity
Exploring the liminal spaces between sustainability, equity and planetary justice
25 October 2023 (Wednesday), 15:00-16:00, inspire

Metamodern futures: Prescriptions for metamodern foresight

This article introduces metamodernism to the field of futures studies and foresight. Metamodernism is a new collective value system that incorporates, contextualizes and transcends all previous value systems while resolving the conflict between them in an integrated whole, with particular focus on resolving the conflict between modern and postmodern value systems (Andersen, 2019; Freinacht, 2017). We propose a “conviction driven" and normative view of metamodernism. We detail its differences with non-normative metamodernism, and explain the metamodern politics and policies envisioned by it. We expose the advantages of metamodernism as a conceptual framework to approach scientific research, and discuss some of its implicit alignments and complementarities with the field of futures and foresight. Finally, for its deliberate potential to solve interlocking crises at the social level, we conclude by advocating the establishment of an applied practice of metamodern foresight: the creation, evaluation and comparison of several normative civilizational futures, some of which have to be metamodern futures.

Associate Professor of Strategy
Rabat Business School
UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies for Anticipatory Governance and Sustainable Policymaking
Westminster International University in Tashkent
Senior Fellow
Ecole des Ponts Business School
Senior Fellow
J. Herbert Smith Centre, University of New Brunswick
Founder & Managing Director
Center for Strategic Foresight
Member of the Supervisory Board
International Asset Bank AD