Foundations of Futures Studies: Volume 1: History, Purposes, and Knowledge (Human Science for a New Era Series)

Futures studies is a new field of inquiry involving systematic and explicit thinking about alternative futures.It aims to demystify the future, make possibilities for the future more known to us, and increase human control over the future.This book summarizes and expands contributions of futurists to the envisioning power and well-being of humanity.Bell brings together futurist intellectual tools, describing and explaining not only the methods, but also the nature, concepts, theories, and exemplars of the field. Foundations of Futures Studies fulfills Bell's five main purposes for writing this two-volume effort: (1) to show that futures studies, like other fields from anthropology to zoology, exists as an identifiable sphere of intellectual activity; (2) to create a teaching instrument that can be used as a basic text for core courses in futures studies; (3) to futurize the thinking of specialists in other disciplines; (4) to contribute to the further development and improvement of fut