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I’m thinking of a series of unofficial random musings about the state of foresight in the university world, as I begin my 13th “season” with the Houston Foresight program — the first 10 as an Adjunct teaching on-the-side….the last three as Program Coordinator.
First and foremost these days is……wait for it…..money! There is a clearly established priority to bring in research dollars. It was always a good thing to bring in some research money, but it has shifted from nice-to-have to must-have. Put bluntly, we are being measured on the dollars we bring in. Fortunately, so far, thanks to some kind sponsors, we are doing okay, but the uneasy feeling remains. The pressure is relentless, workloads are growing, and demands are increasing. [That sounds dramatic as I re-read it, but I stand by it]. We are going to need continued support for research! Yes, we would totally appreciate any projects you might be able to support for us through the university. Typical research in this setting involves combing the NSF/NIH for large multi-year pure research grants. There ain’t no such thing for foresight — at least at this point in time. There seem to be opportunities for us to partner in “future of xxxx” kinds of research where we bring some methodological expertise. We’re working on ways to adapt project work to be more like research work in the university sense.
In addition to keeping our masters happy, the research provides excellent opportunities for students to experience working on real projects, and get tangible work experience. And the learning feeds into our teaching. And it will (I believe) help us to attract more students. A virtuous circle! And the field benefits as well. A challenge in growing our field is that the practitioners are out there earning a living, and don’t really have the time to do foundational research — we learn on the fly. Nothing wrong with that, but it makes it more challenging to spread knowledge on what’s works, what isn’t, what’s being tried, etc.
I personally believe there is great value for foresight to have a presence in the university space (but recognize we can survive without it). I can see a day when we not only have Master’s programs cranking out practitioners (and projects), but PhD programs producing scholars and research that can provide a solid foundation for a growing field. Challenging now, yes…but thank goodness we take the long view. Andy Hines
I still say that foresight+big data+machine+learning = research money. Use text analytics to automate environmental scanning –think “foresight orientation analysis” instead of “sentiment analysis.” Bots that use modified “recommendation engines” to send relevant foresight information your way. And that interface with the major ERP and Enterprise Architecture solutions. There’s money there. And some leads on who to solicit the money from. 🙂
If you’re interested in gathering money for pure research, it may be useful to explore sociological theories regarding how time is socially constructed. I’m hoping to do a dissertation on how ignorance of the future is built into our social construction of reality. An extension of that might be surveying people to see how well the theory fits what people perceive as reality.