About
The Techniques of Futuring project examines how emerging media are reshaping our ability to envision and create sustainable futures.
When confronting converging sustainability crises, our collective capacity to imagine transformative pathways is critical. Traditional futuring techniques - backcasting, scenario planning, visioning - have served researchers, policymakers, and communities in navigating uncertainty and mobilizing action.
This research project examines how emerging media technologies -generative AI, virtual reality, metaverse platforms - are reshaping futuring practices in sustainability science and governance. Through integrated case studies, participatory workshops, and prototype development, we investigate where these technologies are being deployed, how they function in practice, and what effects they produce.
While these technologies offer unprecedented possibilities for multisensory engagement, scaled collaboration, and accessible storytelling about sustainable futures, they also introduce risks around equity, representation, misinformation and others. By mapping both potentials and unintended consequences, this project supports sustainability science in harnessing imagination as a technology for transformation.
