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Intergenerational responsibility and education for the future
Futures 45 (2013) S32–S37
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Futures journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/futures
Intergenerational responsibility and education for the future Eleonora Barbieri Masini * Faculty of Social Sciences, Gregorian University, Rome, Italy
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Article history: Available online 1 December 2012
This article looks at the relationships between generations in terms of the future. It will consider the importance of education for the future and the specific importance of childhood education. The intention is also to determine the extent to which younger generations and also young futurists can teach older ones, and therefore present generations and futurists. ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Future Generation Childhood Education Intergenerational relations Responsibility
1. The responsibilities of present generations towards future generations The main aim of this paper is to underline the importance for the future of intergenerational relations in terms of responsibility towards the future itself. It is not yet commonplace to discuss possible futures in terms of the responsibility of the present generations. Futures are researched, studied, chosen, used, criticised or even sometimes revisited, but very rarely are they are viewed in terms of responsibility towards present society and citizens as well as towards future generations. I once learned from an old man in Tanzania that no African owns something in the present, be it land, a house or a shop, because what we have is a gift to us from previous generations; and we in our turn have these things as loans to keep and preserve for future generations. I think that this view, or vision, is based on responsibility and that we should learn from it. The responsibility to preserve what we have received, for all those who will follow us, is a crucial standpoint for looking at the future. If we take this view, we shall see our choices and actions in the present under the light of our responsibility, and we shall see futures in a different manner. When considering future generations in futures studies, it is also important to recall all the writings that have been produced at different moments of history on utopias and which have been so well described by Wendell Bell [1] and which, in different manners and some times indirectly, show the interest in future generations. In regard to the present, we should first of all consider all our choices and actions at whatever level – choice of family or field of study, and therefore of work or profession – as carrying consequences for the future not only for ourselves but also for our present society and future ones. This also means responsibility for our common household, that is, the globe as a whole, as well as our country, family, children and grandchildren and everyone we meet during our lives. We should bear this thought and attitude constantly in mind, and they should always guide us in our lives: I personally feel this very strongly also in regard to the teaching and writing that I have done in my life.
* Corresponding author at: Via A. Bertoloni 23, 00197 Rome, Italy. E-mail address: [email protected]. 0016-3287/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2012.11.005
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I taught for many years at the Gregorian University, whose students come from different backgrounds and cultures, this being a specificity of the institution since its foundation in 1551 by S. Ignatius de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, in a part of Rome close to where it is situated today. During my time at the Gregorian University, from 1976 to 2004, many of my students were not only from Italy or Europe, and in the recent past from Eastern European countries, mainly Poland, Hungary and Romania, but also from Latin America, Africa and Asia, and I felt very great responsibility for them. I was exchanging ideas and passing on what I had learned with people from cultures different from my own, and they, of course, knew that I was from Italy, with Italian citizenship because my father was Italian (with a Scottish mother and born in Guatemala, although this most of them did not know). Hence, I was from a specific culture old in its history, during which it had lived through many intercultural encounters but had somehow lost its capacity for intercultural dialogue during part of the 20th century, as well as in the present. Being of pure local culture was important during the fascist period, and after the Second World War Italy was mainly interested in economic recovery and in rebuilding democracy, and less interested in differences among cultures. I had travelled in many parts of the world and worked, mainly on research in futures studies or in women’s studies, within different cultures. I had learned a great deal from these experiences, but they were not the same as teaching the younger generation, which implies even greater responsibility. What I can say, however, is that I learned very much from my students in my 30 years of teaching; perhaps more than I had learned in my research work around the world. My experience was comparable with those of the thinkers I consider my teachers, such as the Brazilian sociologist, Pedro Calderon Beltrao, a Jesuit of great knowledge and humanity, or Elise Boulding, who has just died on the 24th of June (2010), also a sociologist and dedicated to the future of peace and women in every part of the world. I conclude this point on our responsibility towards the future and future generations by saying that we learn throughout our lives, and we have the responsibility of transmitting what we learn in different social environments: the family, our work, our teaching, and even our friends. In this way we contribute to the future and at the same time are aware of what we are doing in terms of the future. Many are the builders of the future in the present. I would say that we are constantly building the future, and this is the main reason for our responsibility in intergenerational relations, as well as in our choices and actions. We should bear this in mind in every moment of our lives. 2. Education of the young for the future Given the need to be responsible for the future, it is important that the young should learn to be future-oriented and aware that choices and actions taken in the present will influence the future, or rather futures. It is in fact important that children, from the youngest age onwards, become slowly aware of the future that may occur; or rather, think about the many possible futures which depend on present choices and actions but also about the development of trends which tie the past and the present to the future. We must also bear in mind that there may even be what would be considered an impossible future. The unexpected can always occur. It is hence most important for the young to learn that an orientation to the future is necessary to have an influence on it, as well as being able to somewhat gear it, at least avoiding the worst possible futures. The younger the age at which education for the future begins, the better children will be equipped to be aware of the future and able to choose and act towards the future. I have had experience in working with children both in kindergartens and primary schools, and I found it very interesting to see how stimulated children can have a future outlook. Children are very often able to grasp what I call the ‘‘seeds of change’’ which are in the present for the future. ‘‘Seeds of change’’ are those indications of change which are not apparent but which are nevertheless present; and children are often able to grasp them better than older people because they have not yet formed their stereotypes. Jane Page writes in the preface of her book, ‘‘Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperative for the Future’’, that young children ‘‘. . .have a strong sense of continuity of time, are creative and imaginative and have a sense of personal connection with time and the future’’ [2]. I think this a very interesting and concise way to describe young children in early childhood. Page has conducted research and taught not only in Australia, her country, but also in many other countries such as Italy, where she came as a young researcher. In the early 1980s, I carried out research with other social scientists in Italy and comparative work in other countries, such as Croatia. The work was conducted in Italy by a group of social scientists, and it was also comparative: the Rome hinterland, a medium-sized town in Sicily, and a small town in Liguria. The research mainly concerned primary school children and was based on drawings, which showed the children’s sense of time as well as the influence of the social environment on their images of the future [3]. Also at the beginning of the 1980s, a group was created by Aurelio Peccei, founder of the Club of Rome in Italy, not long before his death in 1984. The group, called ‘‘Macro-problems’’, still exists, and I am still its president. The aim of ‘‘Macroproblems’’ was, and is, to capture and develop the awareness of the young from childhood to adolescence about specific issues related to the future at the global level, these being Peccei’s greatest concern for the future: global issues. The group involves children at all levels of education and it is supported by the Italian Ministry of Education. A specific topic is chosen at the beginning of the school year and launched in all the schools of Italy as a stimulus for work during the entire school year. It ends with a ceremony and prizes awarded for the best work, usually at the beginning of May. Experience over the years has shown that the development of means of communication is well understood by the young, ranging from drawings and brief essays in primary school to CDs and short films as the children grow. Awareness of the issues has also grown over time, and
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some very interesting documents of different kinds have been produced on topics such as food and hunger in the world, climate change, and the possibility of adapting or acting for the environment and peace. At the end of school year the activity of the group ends, as said, with an event when works are presented and prizes are awarded for the best productions [4]. It is remarkable to see how education of children for the future increases their awareness of specific issues over time. Indeed, numerous activities in education for the future have been developed in Finland at almost all educational levels, starting from the very young. Many of these activities are expanding, but much more is needed in all countries, especially for early childhood because the youngest children are also the youngest builders of the future. I strongly believe that the importance of starting education at early childhood age is growing. To quote Jane Page again, because early childhood professionals are ‘‘Positioned at the commencement of the education system, they are optimally placed to lay significant foundations for young children’s lifelong development as they move towards adulthood and come to engage increasingly with a complex and often fragmented social environment’’ [5]. Page later expresses the opinion that, contrary to what is usually thought – namely that attitudes towards the future, like the notions of time and change are not possible among very young children (4 or 5 years old) – experience shows that they are indeed possible, although they differ greatly from those of adults. This is comparable to the results of my long ago experience in primary schools. In my case, however, I did not have the opportunity to rely on the experience of early education professionals because I worked in classes with teachers. It is for this reason that Page refers to professionals prepared for this task. While futures education has been developed in primary and secondary schools in various countries, this is not the case of schools for very young children (4–5 years old). Nevertheless, the notion of the importance of early childhood future education is slowly spreading. It is indeed, very important and, as Page says, early childhood professionals should be considered ‘‘agents of change’’. I would stress, again with Page, that many futures studies scholars have underlined the importance of early childhood education. Such awareness among futures studies practitioners should indeed continue to spread [6]. There is a wide difference between my experience of the importance of early childhood education in the 1980s and the far greater experience obtained by Page 20 years later. These thoughts bring me to the next point. 3. Intergenerational relations and futures studies Awareness of intergenerational relations is indeed crucial, and it becomes increasingly so as time passes, and as changes become more rapid and involve not only the present world at large and people alive today but also future generations. This means that choices and actions taken in the present at every level involve not only distant populations – as do, for example, economic choices made in the richer countries, which also involve many of the so-called less developed countries such as those in Africa – but also the future generations. This is an area in which, in many cases, responsibility has still to be built. There are a few examples in the past of awareness of the consequences of actions on future generations at the global level: for instance, the decision not to continue with research on atomic explosions in the atmosphere taken at the beginning of 1962 by John F. Kennedy in agreement with Nikita Khrushchev, or the international treaty signed by almost all countries in 1997 on landmines. These are two examples of the few global decisions taken with a view to the welfare of future generations. The responsibility for future generations, however, is not a significant part of human and social ethics as conceived by futures studies at large. Effective responsibility towards future generations is starting to grow, but it is not yet particularly visible among futures thinkers. This is indeed an important task for such studies: learning to be aware that choices and actions taken in the present when analysing future social or technological or other changes with an ethical perspective of responsibility is, in my view, not usually perceived as regarding future generations. This ethics comprising responsibility should also inspire those who are, or will be, the decision-makers and actors using futures studies prepared by scholars in the area. I believe this to be the main responsibility of scholars in the area as part of the crucial normative aspect of futures studies. Futures studies have an important ethical component because they have been constantly faced with value choices during the various phases of their development. To provide just one example: it is well known that ‘‘converging technologies’’ – that is, the interconnections among nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, information technologies and cognitive technologies – have very high impacts on humans and societies. This convergence has been and is the topic of many research projects and studies, funded by the European Commission in recent years. Converging technologies are predicted to have a major impact on the human being and on social changes. It is consequently essential that futures studies, also in the area of converging technologies, should be based on ethical thinking: whence derives the importance of the present generation’s responsibility towards future generations. It is also important that the users of futures studies should be aware of the intergenerational effects of decisions taken on the basis of futures studies and be willing to assume such a responsibility. When debating intergenerational responsibility, it is also important to recall what Burns Weston, the well-known human rights expert argued in his 2009 study on ‘‘Climate Change, Human Rights and Intergenerational Justice’’ [7] regarding the lack in the present of any juridical system for protection of future generations’ rights. This is indeed an important lack, and at the same time an encouragement to stress the need for better understanding of this important aspect of the futurist’s work, as well as the need for social institutions to become more aware of this problem. Families should be able to include in their choices and actions the responsibilities that they have in the present for future generations, which means not only their children and grandchildren but also those who will come after them. It also means being aware of decisions taken today that
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will impinge on society at large in the future. This is even more important than in the past, given the increasing rapidity and interrelatedness of changes. It is interesting that, as early as 1991, Bruce E. Tonn wrote an article in Futures with the title ‘‘The Court of Generations a Proposed Amendment to the U.S Constitution’’ and explained that such a Court ‘‘. . .will judge whether present society is ‘in contempt of intolerably threatening the security of the blessings of liberty to our Posterity’’’ (the author is referring here to the preamble of the Constitution and using almost the same words). Tonn was thinking of ‘‘a grand jury, made up of one citizen from each state and the members of the Supreme Court’’ [8]. Later in the paper, he mentions future generations, explaining that the only reference to them in the Constitution is in its preamble and in the words ‘our Posterity’ [9]. Tonn devotes the entire article to describing in what the court of generations would consist and how it could work. Once again, also in relation to legal aspects of responsibility towards future generations, I would emphasise that education, at every level, has the task of fostering awareness of this important responsibility; and as I have tried to show, the need for futures education starting from early childhood should be stressed. Futures education itself, in fact, should comprise a strong ethical basis, for which responsibility for future generations is an important prerequisite. 4. What can we learn from the younger generation? Those interested in the future and intending to work for a better future should come closer to young people, because they are already thinking in terms different from those of older people, whatever generation they may belong to. I can say that I have learned a great deal from my students in my 30 years of teaching futures studies at the Gregorian University, which as already said is international and intercultural in its aims and structure. As mentioned earlier in this paper, students at the Gregorian University come from many parts of the world with different emphasis on world regions in different historical moments: in recent years the students have been mainly from Latin America, and those from Africa have increased in number. This mixture with Italians has been very important for all the students, who have learned how lucky they are to study and even live together with students from various cultural backgrounds. I learned a great deal from each and every one of them. For example, when, almost every year, I decided to build scenarios in class, the students would choose the topic after much discussion. Subsequently the students formed groups and built alternative scenarios. In the process they learned to know each other better and to understand the interests and points of view of others, whether very different from, or with basic similarities, to their own. These contacts changed many of the students’ views and their commitment to futures studies. Each one of them learned from the others, and I could detect changes in their attitudes towards their colleagues. I learned much from the debates, as well as from each student and each culture, and I was often induced to change my attitudes and teaching methods, especially when as a supervisor of theses, whether master or PhD, I was able to go more deeply into each student’s thinking and his or her cultural background. I learned a great deal from the critical attitude of the Latin American students, the depth of the Asians, and indeed much about community behaviour from the Africans. I had many personal experiences that showed me, for example, the great importance of relationships for African students; that is, their attitudes towards others and feeling part of a community – in this case, a community consisting of the other students and the teachers. Learning from the young requires understanding social changes in their development, as well as keeping abreast of everchanging social environments. Having witnessed in my constant contacts with the students many changes in attitudes and behaviour due to their reciprocal contacts, I was able to understand the changing environment in which I was living, studying and working. I also learned to live, I believe, with changes that many members of the older generation find incomprehensible. These, I maintain, are the gifts that we can receive from the young and the interesting things that we can continue to learn. I am now a Professor Emeritus, so that I am not actively teaching, but I do have many of my past students from every part of the world, and sometimes new students who visit or write to me because they had read something about me or by me. From these contacts I continue to learn what is changing in the students themselves and in their cultures. This keeps me constantly curious and wanting to learn more. In sum, my personal experiences show that the young have much to teach the older generations. 5. What can young futurists teach the older generation? I think it is important to follow the line of thought expressed in the previous section by considering the new ideas put forward by young futurists, applications of futures studies, new approaches and methods, or new uses of already well-known methods. I have learned not only from my PhD students in different parts of the world but also from other young futurists. I find that the younger generation of futurists does not find it particularly difficult to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, and this is clearly evidenced by those with backgrounds in the social sciences. Such an approach has long been well known to futurists, but it has proved very difficult to apply in the past. Of course there are exceptions, such as Wendell Bell [10], to name one of very well-known futures studies scholars. I would also name the PREST Group, the Centre for Science and Technology Policy and Management Research of the Manchester Business School, which in 1977 combined its expertise with CRIC (Centre for Research in Innovation and Competition) again at Manchester University and now the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. They are highly active in the area of ‘‘foresight’’, as also is the Finland Futures Research Centre in Turku, and both have an interdisciplinary approach which is being more and more developed. Both these groups of futures studies have many young people engaged in
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their research using an interdisciplinary approach. This is not surprising because their initiators already had an awareness of an interdisciplinary approach, which seems to have grown over time. Another interesting characteristic of the young futurists from which we the older generation can learn is the importance they give to the gearing of futures studies to the needs of decision-makers and stakeholders at large. This was present also in the past studies of many future scholars, such as Michel Godet [11], to name only one who has further developed this emphasis with the young scholars who study and work with him. That is to say, some members of the younger generation seem increasingly aware that futures studies are needed for those with decision-making responsibility also at local level, and it is expressed in the effort to utilise futures approaches at territorial level. This approach is used especially in France, but other countries, such as Germany, are beginning to adopt it. This is a very interesting development. Although much has been done at the global level in terms of futures studies in the past (consider the Club of Rome in the 1970s and 1980s) and much is being done at the national or regional level (I consider as examples Europe or Latin American studies), the younger generation understands that changes are also occurring at the local level where people lead their everyday lives and social structures should be aware of the possible alternative local futures. Hence the need to choose and act for the future in the present should and is developing at the local level. I personally believe that all levels of analysis of changes, and hence futures outlooks, are always needed. At the same time the emphasis on the different levels shows that the awareness of responsibility towards the future is growing and involving every citizen. This may be interpreted as awareness of social changes and as showing that future attitudes and needs are becoming deeper and more diversified at the different levels. Fabienne Goux-Baudiment in a recent book describes ‘‘la prospective territorial’’, which she translates into English as ‘‘local future planning’’, and describes it as a way of conceiving and building the future of a territory on the basis of a vision of the future built, in its turn, by a collective process. This process of collective understanding will be the basis for moving from the vision to the project, in that it tries first to offer better chances of moving from the vision of the future to a project of the future and, after that, from the project to real life [12]. What I find interesting in this future-oriented activity is the collective process of building both the vision and the project for the future followed by their fulfilment in real-life contexts at the local level. In my view, this founding of future-oriented activities on a collective process is something which the younger generations of futurists do more and more than in the past, and they have experimented with it in various areas and environments. This is not to say that this way of proceeding was never used by previous generations (see the work of Michel Godet and his group, already mentioned), rather that such an approach is more widespread and is used by the younger generation. Various forms of collective intelligence for futures visioning and projects are in fact present in various other groups, which have a good presence of the younger generation of futurists, such as the already-mentioned PREST, now the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. The Finland Futures Research Centre in Turku is also very far ahead in collective intelligence for futures visioning and projects. I mention these groups as outstanding examples for the larger participation of the young futurists and awareness of the ethical component when considering the future, as well as using collective intelligence in the various phases of developing futures studies. We can conclude that there are many aspects as well as emphases in futures studies which the older generation can learn from the younger one. 6. Conclusion This paper has strongly advocated intergenerational responsibility as part of the ethical component of futures studies. Futures studies in all its instruments, conceptual discussions, use of methods, and messages for decision-makers should take greater account of such responsibility as part of its ethical basis. I think that it has not been sufficiently emphasised in the history of futures studies and its development. Suffice it to consider how present generations are suffering from the lack of such responsibility in the past. For example, the present generations are more aware at the public level of the consequences of climate change and should be able to gain greater understanding of its consequences in the future. The future belongs to those who will live in it, and we should not leave them a damaging heritage. This is the crucial point in futures education, which should start at an early age and develop through the years to prepare the young also to be responsible for future generations. This is an important task for families, schools and other social institutions. It is a way to build the future taking its future citizens into account. I have stressed that intergenerational responsibility is starting to grow in the younger generation of futurists, and this specifically shows what we, the older generation of futurists, can learn from them. References [1] W. Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, vol. 2, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK), 1997, pp. 7–75. [2] J. Page, Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperatives for the Future, Ruthledge Falmer Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, 2000 (Preface by the Author). [3] E. Masini, Les enfants et leurs images du future, in: Temps Libre, Hiver, Paris, 1982, pp. 71–84. [4] www.verdegreen.net. [5] J. Page, Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperatives for the Future, Ruthledge Falmer Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, 2000, pp. 1–3. [6] J. Page, Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperatives for the Future, Ruthledge Falmer Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, 2000, p. 2.
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[7] B. Weston, Recalibrating the Law of Humans with the Laws of Nature: Climate Change, Human Rights and Intergenerational Justice, a Policy Paper of the Climate legacy Initiative, Joint Project of the Environmental Law Center of Vermont Law School and the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, April 2009. [8] B.E. Tonn, The court of generations, a proposed amendment to the constitution, Futures 23 (5) (1991) 482. [9] B.E. Tonn, The court of generations, a proposed amendment to the constitution, Futures 23 (5) (1991) 486. [10] W. Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, vols.1 and 2, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK), 1997. [11] M. Godet, From Anticipation to Action: A Handbook of Strategic Prospective, UNESCO, Paris, France, 1994. [12] F. Goux-Baudiment, G. Soulet, J. de Courson, Quiz pour conduir un exercice de prospective territorial, Editions Certu, Lyon, France, 2008.
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Futures journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/futures
Intergenerational responsibility and education for the future Eleonora Barbieri Masini * Faculty of Social Sciences, Gregorian University, Rome, Italy
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Article history: Available online 1 December 2012
This article looks at the relationships between generations in terms of the future. It will consider the importance of education for the future and the specific importance of childhood education. The intention is also to determine the extent to which younger generations and also young futurists can teach older ones, and therefore present generations and futurists. ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Future Generation Childhood Education Intergenerational relations Responsibility
1. The responsibilities of present generations towards future generations The main aim of this paper is to underline the importance for the future of intergenerational relations in terms of responsibility towards the future itself. It is not yet commonplace to discuss possible futures in terms of the responsibility of the present generations. Futures are researched, studied, chosen, used, criticised or even sometimes revisited, but very rarely are they are viewed in terms of responsibility towards present society and citizens as well as towards future generations. I once learned from an old man in Tanzania that no African owns something in the present, be it land, a house or a shop, because what we have is a gift to us from previous generations; and we in our turn have these things as loans to keep and preserve for future generations. I think that this view, or vision, is based on responsibility and that we should learn from it. The responsibility to preserve what we have received, for all those who will follow us, is a crucial standpoint for looking at the future. If we take this view, we shall see our choices and actions in the present under the light of our responsibility, and we shall see futures in a different manner. When considering future generations in futures studies, it is also important to recall all the writings that have been produced at different moments of history on utopias and which have been so well described by Wendell Bell [1] and which, in different manners and some times indirectly, show the interest in future generations. In regard to the present, we should first of all consider all our choices and actions at whatever level – choice of family or field of study, and therefore of work or profession – as carrying consequences for the future not only for ourselves but also for our present society and future ones. This also means responsibility for our common household, that is, the globe as a whole, as well as our country, family, children and grandchildren and everyone we meet during our lives. We should bear this thought and attitude constantly in mind, and they should always guide us in our lives: I personally feel this very strongly also in regard to the teaching and writing that I have done in my life.
* Corresponding author at: Via A. Bertoloni 23, 00197 Rome, Italy. E-mail address: [email protected]. 0016-3287/$ – see front matter ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2012.11.005
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I taught for many years at the Gregorian University, whose students come from different backgrounds and cultures, this being a specificity of the institution since its foundation in 1551 by S. Ignatius de Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, in a part of Rome close to where it is situated today. During my time at the Gregorian University, from 1976 to 2004, many of my students were not only from Italy or Europe, and in the recent past from Eastern European countries, mainly Poland, Hungary and Romania, but also from Latin America, Africa and Asia, and I felt very great responsibility for them. I was exchanging ideas and passing on what I had learned with people from cultures different from my own, and they, of course, knew that I was from Italy, with Italian citizenship because my father was Italian (with a Scottish mother and born in Guatemala, although this most of them did not know). Hence, I was from a specific culture old in its history, during which it had lived through many intercultural encounters but had somehow lost its capacity for intercultural dialogue during part of the 20th century, as well as in the present. Being of pure local culture was important during the fascist period, and after the Second World War Italy was mainly interested in economic recovery and in rebuilding democracy, and less interested in differences among cultures. I had travelled in many parts of the world and worked, mainly on research in futures studies or in women’s studies, within different cultures. I had learned a great deal from these experiences, but they were not the same as teaching the younger generation, which implies even greater responsibility. What I can say, however, is that I learned very much from my students in my 30 years of teaching; perhaps more than I had learned in my research work around the world. My experience was comparable with those of the thinkers I consider my teachers, such as the Brazilian sociologist, Pedro Calderon Beltrao, a Jesuit of great knowledge and humanity, or Elise Boulding, who has just died on the 24th of June (2010), also a sociologist and dedicated to the future of peace and women in every part of the world. I conclude this point on our responsibility towards the future and future generations by saying that we learn throughout our lives, and we have the responsibility of transmitting what we learn in different social environments: the family, our work, our teaching, and even our friends. In this way we contribute to the future and at the same time are aware of what we are doing in terms of the future. Many are the builders of the future in the present. I would say that we are constantly building the future, and this is the main reason for our responsibility in intergenerational relations, as well as in our choices and actions. We should bear this in mind in every moment of our lives. 2. Education of the young for the future Given the need to be responsible for the future, it is important that the young should learn to be future-oriented and aware that choices and actions taken in the present will influence the future, or rather futures. It is in fact important that children, from the youngest age onwards, become slowly aware of the future that may occur; or rather, think about the many possible futures which depend on present choices and actions but also about the development of trends which tie the past and the present to the future. We must also bear in mind that there may even be what would be considered an impossible future. The unexpected can always occur. It is hence most important for the young to learn that an orientation to the future is necessary to have an influence on it, as well as being able to somewhat gear it, at least avoiding the worst possible futures. The younger the age at which education for the future begins, the better children will be equipped to be aware of the future and able to choose and act towards the future. I have had experience in working with children both in kindergartens and primary schools, and I found it very interesting to see how stimulated children can have a future outlook. Children are very often able to grasp what I call the ‘‘seeds of change’’ which are in the present for the future. ‘‘Seeds of change’’ are those indications of change which are not apparent but which are nevertheless present; and children are often able to grasp them better than older people because they have not yet formed their stereotypes. Jane Page writes in the preface of her book, ‘‘Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperative for the Future’’, that young children ‘‘. . .have a strong sense of continuity of time, are creative and imaginative and have a sense of personal connection with time and the future’’ [2]. I think this a very interesting and concise way to describe young children in early childhood. Page has conducted research and taught not only in Australia, her country, but also in many other countries such as Italy, where she came as a young researcher. In the early 1980s, I carried out research with other social scientists in Italy and comparative work in other countries, such as Croatia. The work was conducted in Italy by a group of social scientists, and it was also comparative: the Rome hinterland, a medium-sized town in Sicily, and a small town in Liguria. The research mainly concerned primary school children and was based on drawings, which showed the children’s sense of time as well as the influence of the social environment on their images of the future [3]. Also at the beginning of the 1980s, a group was created by Aurelio Peccei, founder of the Club of Rome in Italy, not long before his death in 1984. The group, called ‘‘Macro-problems’’, still exists, and I am still its president. The aim of ‘‘Macroproblems’’ was, and is, to capture and develop the awareness of the young from childhood to adolescence about specific issues related to the future at the global level, these being Peccei’s greatest concern for the future: global issues. The group involves children at all levels of education and it is supported by the Italian Ministry of Education. A specific topic is chosen at the beginning of the school year and launched in all the schools of Italy as a stimulus for work during the entire school year. It ends with a ceremony and prizes awarded for the best work, usually at the beginning of May. Experience over the years has shown that the development of means of communication is well understood by the young, ranging from drawings and brief essays in primary school to CDs and short films as the children grow. Awareness of the issues has also grown over time, and
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some very interesting documents of different kinds have been produced on topics such as food and hunger in the world, climate change, and the possibility of adapting or acting for the environment and peace. At the end of school year the activity of the group ends, as said, with an event when works are presented and prizes are awarded for the best productions [4]. It is remarkable to see how education of children for the future increases their awareness of specific issues over time. Indeed, numerous activities in education for the future have been developed in Finland at almost all educational levels, starting from the very young. Many of these activities are expanding, but much more is needed in all countries, especially for early childhood because the youngest children are also the youngest builders of the future. I strongly believe that the importance of starting education at early childhood age is growing. To quote Jane Page again, because early childhood professionals are ‘‘Positioned at the commencement of the education system, they are optimally placed to lay significant foundations for young children’s lifelong development as they move towards adulthood and come to engage increasingly with a complex and often fragmented social environment’’ [5]. Page later expresses the opinion that, contrary to what is usually thought – namely that attitudes towards the future, like the notions of time and change are not possible among very young children (4 or 5 years old) – experience shows that they are indeed possible, although they differ greatly from those of adults. This is comparable to the results of my long ago experience in primary schools. In my case, however, I did not have the opportunity to rely on the experience of early education professionals because I worked in classes with teachers. It is for this reason that Page refers to professionals prepared for this task. While futures education has been developed in primary and secondary schools in various countries, this is not the case of schools for very young children (4–5 years old). Nevertheless, the notion of the importance of early childhood future education is slowly spreading. It is indeed, very important and, as Page says, early childhood professionals should be considered ‘‘agents of change’’. I would stress, again with Page, that many futures studies scholars have underlined the importance of early childhood education. Such awareness among futures studies practitioners should indeed continue to spread [6]. There is a wide difference between my experience of the importance of early childhood education in the 1980s and the far greater experience obtained by Page 20 years later. These thoughts bring me to the next point. 3. Intergenerational relations and futures studies Awareness of intergenerational relations is indeed crucial, and it becomes increasingly so as time passes, and as changes become more rapid and involve not only the present world at large and people alive today but also future generations. This means that choices and actions taken in the present at every level involve not only distant populations – as do, for example, economic choices made in the richer countries, which also involve many of the so-called less developed countries such as those in Africa – but also the future generations. This is an area in which, in many cases, responsibility has still to be built. There are a few examples in the past of awareness of the consequences of actions on future generations at the global level: for instance, the decision not to continue with research on atomic explosions in the atmosphere taken at the beginning of 1962 by John F. Kennedy in agreement with Nikita Khrushchev, or the international treaty signed by almost all countries in 1997 on landmines. These are two examples of the few global decisions taken with a view to the welfare of future generations. The responsibility for future generations, however, is not a significant part of human and social ethics as conceived by futures studies at large. Effective responsibility towards future generations is starting to grow, but it is not yet particularly visible among futures thinkers. This is indeed an important task for such studies: learning to be aware that choices and actions taken in the present when analysing future social or technological or other changes with an ethical perspective of responsibility is, in my view, not usually perceived as regarding future generations. This ethics comprising responsibility should also inspire those who are, or will be, the decision-makers and actors using futures studies prepared by scholars in the area. I believe this to be the main responsibility of scholars in the area as part of the crucial normative aspect of futures studies. Futures studies have an important ethical component because they have been constantly faced with value choices during the various phases of their development. To provide just one example: it is well known that ‘‘converging technologies’’ – that is, the interconnections among nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, information technologies and cognitive technologies – have very high impacts on humans and societies. This convergence has been and is the topic of many research projects and studies, funded by the European Commission in recent years. Converging technologies are predicted to have a major impact on the human being and on social changes. It is consequently essential that futures studies, also in the area of converging technologies, should be based on ethical thinking: whence derives the importance of the present generation’s responsibility towards future generations. It is also important that the users of futures studies should be aware of the intergenerational effects of decisions taken on the basis of futures studies and be willing to assume such a responsibility. When debating intergenerational responsibility, it is also important to recall what Burns Weston, the well-known human rights expert argued in his 2009 study on ‘‘Climate Change, Human Rights and Intergenerational Justice’’ [7] regarding the lack in the present of any juridical system for protection of future generations’ rights. This is indeed an important lack, and at the same time an encouragement to stress the need for better understanding of this important aspect of the futurist’s work, as well as the need for social institutions to become more aware of this problem. Families should be able to include in their choices and actions the responsibilities that they have in the present for future generations, which means not only their children and grandchildren but also those who will come after them. It also means being aware of decisions taken today that
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will impinge on society at large in the future. This is even more important than in the past, given the increasing rapidity and interrelatedness of changes. It is interesting that, as early as 1991, Bruce E. Tonn wrote an article in Futures with the title ‘‘The Court of Generations a Proposed Amendment to the U.S Constitution’’ and explained that such a Court ‘‘. . .will judge whether present society is ‘in contempt of intolerably threatening the security of the blessings of liberty to our Posterity’’’ (the author is referring here to the preamble of the Constitution and using almost the same words). Tonn was thinking of ‘‘a grand jury, made up of one citizen from each state and the members of the Supreme Court’’ [8]. Later in the paper, he mentions future generations, explaining that the only reference to them in the Constitution is in its preamble and in the words ‘our Posterity’ [9]. Tonn devotes the entire article to describing in what the court of generations would consist and how it could work. Once again, also in relation to legal aspects of responsibility towards future generations, I would emphasise that education, at every level, has the task of fostering awareness of this important responsibility; and as I have tried to show, the need for futures education starting from early childhood should be stressed. Futures education itself, in fact, should comprise a strong ethical basis, for which responsibility for future generations is an important prerequisite. 4. What can we learn from the younger generation? Those interested in the future and intending to work for a better future should come closer to young people, because they are already thinking in terms different from those of older people, whatever generation they may belong to. I can say that I have learned a great deal from my students in my 30 years of teaching futures studies at the Gregorian University, which as already said is international and intercultural in its aims and structure. As mentioned earlier in this paper, students at the Gregorian University come from many parts of the world with different emphasis on world regions in different historical moments: in recent years the students have been mainly from Latin America, and those from Africa have increased in number. This mixture with Italians has been very important for all the students, who have learned how lucky they are to study and even live together with students from various cultural backgrounds. I learned a great deal from each and every one of them. For example, when, almost every year, I decided to build scenarios in class, the students would choose the topic after much discussion. Subsequently the students formed groups and built alternative scenarios. In the process they learned to know each other better and to understand the interests and points of view of others, whether very different from, or with basic similarities, to their own. These contacts changed many of the students’ views and their commitment to futures studies. Each one of them learned from the others, and I could detect changes in their attitudes towards their colleagues. I learned much from the debates, as well as from each student and each culture, and I was often induced to change my attitudes and teaching methods, especially when as a supervisor of theses, whether master or PhD, I was able to go more deeply into each student’s thinking and his or her cultural background. I learned a great deal from the critical attitude of the Latin American students, the depth of the Asians, and indeed much about community behaviour from the Africans. I had many personal experiences that showed me, for example, the great importance of relationships for African students; that is, their attitudes towards others and feeling part of a community – in this case, a community consisting of the other students and the teachers. Learning from the young requires understanding social changes in their development, as well as keeping abreast of everchanging social environments. Having witnessed in my constant contacts with the students many changes in attitudes and behaviour due to their reciprocal contacts, I was able to understand the changing environment in which I was living, studying and working. I also learned to live, I believe, with changes that many members of the older generation find incomprehensible. These, I maintain, are the gifts that we can receive from the young and the interesting things that we can continue to learn. I am now a Professor Emeritus, so that I am not actively teaching, but I do have many of my past students from every part of the world, and sometimes new students who visit or write to me because they had read something about me or by me. From these contacts I continue to learn what is changing in the students themselves and in their cultures. This keeps me constantly curious and wanting to learn more. In sum, my personal experiences show that the young have much to teach the older generations. 5. What can young futurists teach the older generation? I think it is important to follow the line of thought expressed in the previous section by considering the new ideas put forward by young futurists, applications of futures studies, new approaches and methods, or new uses of already well-known methods. I have learned not only from my PhD students in different parts of the world but also from other young futurists. I find that the younger generation of futurists does not find it particularly difficult to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, and this is clearly evidenced by those with backgrounds in the social sciences. Such an approach has long been well known to futurists, but it has proved very difficult to apply in the past. Of course there are exceptions, such as Wendell Bell [10], to name one of very well-known futures studies scholars. I would also name the PREST Group, the Centre for Science and Technology Policy and Management Research of the Manchester Business School, which in 1977 combined its expertise with CRIC (Centre for Research in Innovation and Competition) again at Manchester University and now the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. They are highly active in the area of ‘‘foresight’’, as also is the Finland Futures Research Centre in Turku, and both have an interdisciplinary approach which is being more and more developed. Both these groups of futures studies have many young people engaged in
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their research using an interdisciplinary approach. This is not surprising because their initiators already had an awareness of an interdisciplinary approach, which seems to have grown over time. Another interesting characteristic of the young futurists from which we the older generation can learn is the importance they give to the gearing of futures studies to the needs of decision-makers and stakeholders at large. This was present also in the past studies of many future scholars, such as Michel Godet [11], to name only one who has further developed this emphasis with the young scholars who study and work with him. That is to say, some members of the younger generation seem increasingly aware that futures studies are needed for those with decision-making responsibility also at local level, and it is expressed in the effort to utilise futures approaches at territorial level. This approach is used especially in France, but other countries, such as Germany, are beginning to adopt it. This is a very interesting development. Although much has been done at the global level in terms of futures studies in the past (consider the Club of Rome in the 1970s and 1980s) and much is being done at the national or regional level (I consider as examples Europe or Latin American studies), the younger generation understands that changes are also occurring at the local level where people lead their everyday lives and social structures should be aware of the possible alternative local futures. Hence the need to choose and act for the future in the present should and is developing at the local level. I personally believe that all levels of analysis of changes, and hence futures outlooks, are always needed. At the same time the emphasis on the different levels shows that the awareness of responsibility towards the future is growing and involving every citizen. This may be interpreted as awareness of social changes and as showing that future attitudes and needs are becoming deeper and more diversified at the different levels. Fabienne Goux-Baudiment in a recent book describes ‘‘la prospective territorial’’, which she translates into English as ‘‘local future planning’’, and describes it as a way of conceiving and building the future of a territory on the basis of a vision of the future built, in its turn, by a collective process. This process of collective understanding will be the basis for moving from the vision to the project, in that it tries first to offer better chances of moving from the vision of the future to a project of the future and, after that, from the project to real life [12]. What I find interesting in this future-oriented activity is the collective process of building both the vision and the project for the future followed by their fulfilment in real-life contexts at the local level. In my view, this founding of future-oriented activities on a collective process is something which the younger generations of futurists do more and more than in the past, and they have experimented with it in various areas and environments. This is not to say that this way of proceeding was never used by previous generations (see the work of Michel Godet and his group, already mentioned), rather that such an approach is more widespread and is used by the younger generation. Various forms of collective intelligence for futures visioning and projects are in fact present in various other groups, which have a good presence of the younger generation of futurists, such as the already-mentioned PREST, now the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. The Finland Futures Research Centre in Turku is also very far ahead in collective intelligence for futures visioning and projects. I mention these groups as outstanding examples for the larger participation of the young futurists and awareness of the ethical component when considering the future, as well as using collective intelligence in the various phases of developing futures studies. We can conclude that there are many aspects as well as emphases in futures studies which the older generation can learn from the younger one. 6. Conclusion This paper has strongly advocated intergenerational responsibility as part of the ethical component of futures studies. Futures studies in all its instruments, conceptual discussions, use of methods, and messages for decision-makers should take greater account of such responsibility as part of its ethical basis. I think that it has not been sufficiently emphasised in the history of futures studies and its development. Suffice it to consider how present generations are suffering from the lack of such responsibility in the past. For example, the present generations are more aware at the public level of the consequences of climate change and should be able to gain greater understanding of its consequences in the future. The future belongs to those who will live in it, and we should not leave them a damaging heritage. This is the crucial point in futures education, which should start at an early age and develop through the years to prepare the young also to be responsible for future generations. This is an important task for families, schools and other social institutions. It is a way to build the future taking its future citizens into account. I have stressed that intergenerational responsibility is starting to grow in the younger generation of futurists, and this specifically shows what we, the older generation of futurists, can learn from them. References [1] W. Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, vol. 2, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK), 1997, pp. 7–75. [2] J. Page, Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperatives for the Future, Ruthledge Falmer Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, 2000 (Preface by the Author). [3] E. Masini, Les enfants et leurs images du future, in: Temps Libre, Hiver, Paris, 1982, pp. 71–84. [4] www.verdegreen.net. [5] J. Page, Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperatives for the Future, Ruthledge Falmer Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, 2000, pp. 1–3. [6] J. Page, Reframing the Early Childhood Curriculum, Educational Imperatives for the Future, Ruthledge Falmer Taylor and Francis Group, London and New York, 2000, p. 2.
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[7] B. Weston, Recalibrating the Law of Humans with the Laws of Nature: Climate Change, Human Rights and Intergenerational Justice, a Policy Paper of the Climate legacy Initiative, Joint Project of the Environmental Law Center of Vermont Law School and the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights, April 2009. [8] B.E. Tonn, The court of generations, a proposed amendment to the constitution, Futures 23 (5) (1991) 482. [9] B.E. Tonn, The court of generations, a proposed amendment to the constitution, Futures 23 (5) (1991) 486. [10] W. Bell, Foundations of Futures Studies, vols.1 and 2, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK), 1997. [11] M. Godet, From Anticipation to Action: A Handbook of Strategic Prospective, UNESCO, Paris, France, 1994. [12] F. Goux-Baudiment, G. Soulet, J. de Courson, Quiz pour conduir un exercice de prospective territorial, Editions Certu, Lyon, France, 2008.