Methodologies in Futures Studies and Foresight: A State of the Art and Future Directions

Every now and then I get a respite from administrative work to write an in-depth piece about my true love — the work we do as futurists. I am grateful to colleagues Gabrielle Rizzo and Tony Masys for providing me this opportunity giving me a chapter in their new Handbook of Foresight, Strategy, and Futures Studies for Defense and Security. It is sure to become a must-have in the security domain, but thankfully plays nicely in the foresight field at large.

KEY POINT: The tool kit is indeed expanding along with growing client interest.

In Methodologies in Futures Studies and Foresight: A State of the Art and Future Directions, I had the juicy opportunity to characterize the state-of-the-art as well as future directions in our methodology. Yes please! The good news is that as our field continues to mature, we see evidence of this in our methods and practices. As a young discipline we have been heavily reliant on practitioners with a small academic base, which has contributed to more emphasis on innovating around existing methods than inventing new ones. But this has been changing! Interest in the field has grown, including a significant surge of interest by the public sector and global NGOs.

Dig in and enjoy! — Andy Hines

Citation: Hines, Andy. (2025). Methodologies in Futures Studies and Foresight – a State of the Art and Future Directions. In Rizzo, Gabrielle and Anthony Masys, Eds. Handbook of Foresight, Strategy, and Futures Studies for Defense and Security. Springer Nature, Switzerland.

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

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