The study of the future, social forecasting, mutations: Semiotic challenges and contributions

Abstract

AbstractThe research fieldwork dedicated to trend analysis and foresight/forecast scenarios building, represents an unusual raid in an area where economic and social sciences have invested many efforts. Nevertheless, the semiotic dimension of this subject is not sufficiently thorough; many issues are at stake:–the definition criteria of the corpus;–the selection of trend signals, the selection criteria;–the narrative framework of scenarios;–the deep logic permitting to describe the relationships between the trends and to trace their evolution;–the prevision as mutation logic, anticipation exercise, simulation activity;–the different application contexts of the anticipation science.We are going to investigate this area of analysis, for its relevance in post-Greimassian studies, for its interface with social sciences, as well as for its relevance for the legitimacy of semiotics in contemporary discussions of innovation and evolution.