Designing ‘Futures Studies Journeys’. Addressing Users of Futures Studies Using a Contingency Approach

Abstract

The Dutch government has a large and diverse range of advisory councils and planning agencies that produce studies of the future as an input to the development of strategic government policy. The work of these organisations is important and relevant, as well as very diverse in terms of their approach to the future, the methodologies they use, and the topics on which they focus. In particular, they serve different users, who all use these studies for their own purposes. As a result, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to designing a futures study. To deal with this variety, we use a contingency approach with which we set up a framework presenting different ‘futures studies journeys’ that relate different user goals to different approaches to the future, to different phases in policy-processes in which the futures study is used, and to different methods to be employed.