An assessment of futures studies worldwide

An Assessment of Futures Studies Worldwide

AN ASSESSMENT STUDIES John McHale

135

OF FUTURES

WORLDWIDE

and Magda

Cordell McHale

This article is based on a recent survey of the futures field.* The expansion of the subject is shown by the growing number of conferences, publications, secretariats and commissions, and the subject is characterised by a drive for professional recognition and higher standards of methodological rigour. Changes in futures studies include: the shift from linear forecasting towards more normative modes that consider a range of alternative futures; and a new predominance of social science over physical science among practitioners. Whereas futures studies used to have the appearance of a disciplinary enclave it now appears increasingly like a social movement, attracting a degree of involvement similar to that of the civil rights movement, ecology, or consumerism.

BETWEENMarch,

1974 and March, 1975, we carried out an international survey of futures studies in co-sponsorship with UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research). In this survey we extended our previous US surveys-who is doing what, with what kind of objectives, and using what kinds of approaches and methods in futures studies-on an international basis. This article takes the form of a commentary on the results of this survey and an assessment of how the field of futures studies has developed worldwide over recent years. In the first place it may be useful to qualify some of the terms that are generally used to describe futures work. Futuristics, futurology, forecasting, and futures research are all used widely, and often interchangeably. Futuribles, the term coined by de Jouvenel, tends to be restricted to Western Europe. There is a preference for “prognostics” in Russia and Eastern Europe, with additional adjectives such as social, economic, and political. As the field has grown in * For a report of the survey, see Furares Studies: An Inkrnationd Survey by John McHale and Magda Cordell McHale. The full report on the survey was published by UNITAR, December 1975 and may be purchased from UN Sales Section, Room LX 2300, New York, NY 10017, USA or from Palais de Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland. John McHale is Director and Magda Cordell McHale is Research Associate of the Center for Integrative Studies, School of Advanced Technology, State University of New York, Binghamton, New York 13901, USA.

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respectability, the terms futures research and forecasting tend to be preferred in more academic discussion. One might comment that almost all of the terms are somewhat misleading. They carry the implication of the opening up of a new field of knowledge with varying overtones of scientific rigour. We have, therefore, used the more modest and ambiguous term, futures studies, in this article to convey the idea of an activity which embraces many elements-prediction, conjecture, imaginative extrapolation, and normative projection. There is a shift within the field itself, from an emphasis on prediction and linear forecasting towards normative modes that consider a range of alternative futuresi Those involved in futures studies are now generally concerned with “alerting” functions which indicate ranges of positive and negative consequences resulting from different courses of action. One can also differentiate between forecasting, long-range planning, and futures studies. In practice these may be woven together but they do have certain independent aspects: Forecasting tends to assume some set of definable causal relations between events through which one can predict their future states-with varying levels of probability of occurrence. Many forecasting activities are also restricted within some given set of value premises. This particularly applies in much economic and technolo~cal forecasting. This latter “value free” aspect is undergoing a subtle transformation as activities such as technology assessment grow in importance. o Long-rang planning is generally concerned with the organisation of events within the next five to ten years. Its horizons are usually limited by its functional relationship to some specific sector of the society. Such planning is also characterised by im@ied value assumptions. The concern is with how some activity may be planned rather than with why it should be planned. As longer-range planning begins to move to the international level, differences in value preferences have moved to the fore. In national planning, the need for better social indicators to aid planning has led to more explicit value measures. l Future studies tend to be oriented towards the longer term-beyond the next two or three decades. It is essentially an open-ended and less definable process than forecasting and long-range planning. More often than not, futures studies are concerned with a~p&t sets of value considerations and preferences. Rather than assuming the given nature of larger causal relations these are taken as open to question. There is an underlying shift from what may be feasible under given constraints to what could or should be possible and/or desirable-if we choose to alter the constraints upon present and future actions.

l

Another primary l

way of classifying the overall group would o~entation and methodological approach. 2

be according

to their

Descriptive. This is defined as embracing various conjectural, speculative and imaginable modes. This would include a wide range of studies, from essays on the future of some particular human activity to “whole society” futures in which a variety of alternative directions may be described.

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An Assessmentof FuturesStudies Worldwide

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l

137

Exploratory. This term is usually reserved for the methodical extrapolation of past and present developments into the future, ie those techniques that include economic and technological forecasts and scenario building. Prescriptive. This approach is essentially one in which “normatively” oriented futures are projected where strong value assertions and choice are presented within a framework of alternative states.

For a more detailed discussion of these differences and convergences orientation and methods, the reader may refer to the literature.3 Development

in field

of the field

In the past ten years, futures studies, forecasting, and long-range planning have expanded considerably. One index of this would be the growth of the world congresses for those specifically involved in futures studies or futures research. The increase in the number and frequency of such meetings would be even more dramatic if one included the growth in more specialised conferences in other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, and political science which now contain “futures” sections on their agenda. In our current survey, several tendencies were noted. The first is the drive for professional recognition and higher standards of methodological rigour by those accumulating expertise and experience in the field. This is reflected in the rise in the number of journals and newsletters devoted to futures, forecasting, and long-range planning, and in the number of courses on various aspects of the field being offered at universities and indeed throughout the educational system.4 In addition, the number and range of professionals coming into the field from other areas has risen and changed, particularly over the past five years. Where the earlier predominance was in physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics, more recent expansion has come from the social and behavioural sciences and the humanities. The second tendency has been the transition of futures work from a kind of disciplinary enclave towards becoming a social movement. Other issue-oriented movements, such as civil rights, ecology, consumerism, anti-war and so on, have had their successive waves of popular attention and participation. As these “burn out”, many of their adherents have moved over into involvement with the future. The themes of such involvement tend to be carried over also from their previous locus; for example, the ecology issue translates into the future of spaceship earth. Some of these social movements coalesce into large groupings. In the USA, for example, projects such as Hawaii 2000 and Iowa 2000 draw their broad support from those who are, or were, active in other issue areas. The third tendency depends to some extent on the previous two. Given the normal institutional lag, there are a growing number of futures secretariats, commissions, or study groups at the national-government level. These have been linked, in part, to the development of international initiatives by the UN and other bodies in projects like the World Environmental, Population, and Food Conferences which have generated concern about longer-term challenges and issues. To summarise these tendencies figuratively, one might say that the futures

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An Assessment of Futures Studies Worldwide

field has gone from the small, and rather steep, pyramid form of its earlier phases to an hour-glass formation. There is a large popular base, a relatively constricted and more slowly growing number of professionals in the middle, and a widening spread of official organisations, government or otherwise, at the top. National

government

organisatioms

This aspect is rendered more complex by the differences between centrally and non-centrally planned economies. The former, with the USSR as the prime example, have always been committed to longer-term planning-to five-, ten-, and lately 25-year plans. These, though economic in overall emphasis and direction, have been extended into many other spheres. In Eastern Europe such long-range planning and futures work is also most typically carried out via their various Academies. In Czechoslova~a, one such key study into that country’s long-term future was prepared by the “Interdisciplinary Team for Research into the Social and Human Implications of the Scientific and Technological Revolution”s of the Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. In Poland, the Polish Academy of Sciences has its Research and Prognostics Committee whose work is regularly published in its own journal Polska 2000. Sicinski summarises this discussion for the socialist countries as follows: Studies into the future are carried out, first of all by several centres in the USSR, most notably by the Soviet Academy’s Institute of Sociological Research. Forecasting projects are also pursued in the GDR (ie economic forecasting system), in Czechoslovakia . . ., in Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Some forecasting projects have also been undertaken within the framework of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. In Poland, prognostical studies are carried out mainly by the Planning Commission attached to the Cabinet, the “Poland 2000” Research and Forecasting Committee set up in 1969 at the Polish Academy of Sciences and by the Ministry of Science, University Education and Technology, by the Center for Prognostical Studies, Warsaw, Wroclaw Polytechnical Institute et al. The Social Prognoses section at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences special& in research into the future of culture and related methodological problems . . . forecasting or prognostication is treated as a separate field of research carried out in close connection with planning . . . although perhaps the problem of mutual relations between these two fields has not yet been sufficiently defined.6 Turning to the less centrally planned economies, we find the picture is somewhat different. In Sweden, a working party on the future was set up in May 1971 by Prime Minister Olof Palme. Alva Myrdal, then Minister of State, was appointed chairman. Out of this has come the Swedish Secretariat for Futures Studies which is administra~vely attached to the Cabinet Of&e. Their first report in 1972, To C%ose a Future, discusses topics of specific concern to Sweden but also

reviews global and national activities in the futures area. In the Netherlands, long-range planning is more closely linked to government. The Central Planning Office has issued a report on “The Netherlands Economy in 1980”. The Mien of Transport and Public Works publ~hed a projection entitled TP 2000. The Provisional Scientific Council for Government Policy, FUTURES

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which evolved out of the Wolff Committee for Research in the Future Structure of Society (1968), was set up to provide the government with “some idea of the future of society”. 7 There are also a number of other futures groups and centres in the Netherlands with quasi-governmental liaison, eg the European Cultural Foundation with its Europe 2000 programme. The Danish Social Science Research Council, in 1970, set up a committee for Futurology under its vice-chairman, Henning Friis, Director of the National Institute of Social Research. The Committee’s 1973 report on ‘Society and Future” surveys futures work in Denmark and elsewhere, and discusses ongoing government involvement in longer-term planning, ie “Perspective Planning 1970-85”. France has its Commissariat du Plan which, though more concerned with conventional long-range national planning, has important links with the main French centres for futures studies, eg the pioneer group Futuribles headed by Bertrand de Jouvenel and the Centre d’Etudes Prospectives. A large number of influential French studies have been published in the futures and long-range planning area. Discussion of these may be found in the journal Futuribles: Analyse-Pre’vision-Prospective of the Futuribles group. The Federal Republic of Germany relies mainly, at the official level, on its Minis~ of Research and Technology for long-range perspectives though there are, of course, many non-government futures-study centres in the country. The Minis~y’s task is defined as locating feasible alternatives for technolo~ policy in the light of structural changes in the local and world society and changes in the patterns of resource dependency. The UK’s version of an official long-range prospective unit was the government’s Central Policy Review Staff headed originally by Lord Rothschild and now headed by Sir Kenneth Berrill. Much of the broader future-oriented directions have, however, been encouraged by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and its Social Forecasting Committee. A good deal of futures work, partly supported by the SSRC, has been carried out by the Science Policy Research Unit of the University of Sussex which has emerged as one of the more important C‘futures” centres inte~ationally. In the UK the Post O&e has been a focus for long-range forecasting activities. This is also the case in some other countries, such as Australia, and derives from an involvement with a swiftly developing technology (telecommunications). This involvement has led such forecasting far from its original technical base to consider overall social impacts. This diversity of linkage between government ministries and other futuresresearch units external to government is typical of Europe generally. One of the more important quasi-governmental centres has been the Scientific Directorate of the OECD which, under the directorship of Alexander King, pioneered and encouraged many long-range studies. In Canada, the Special Committee on Science Policy headed by Senator Maurice Lamontagne has expressed the need for a Canadian Commission on the Future to encourage futures research and to involve the public in futures studies. There are also a number of other government and non-government centres concerned with aspects of futures studies and forecasting.8

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The USA has been curiously slow in doing such work as “official” government business, ~onside~ng the leading role which US futures workers have played in the development of the field. This is partially explicable in terms of the traditional avoidance of centralised long-range planning, apart from defence and aerospace, and of the distribution of such work among a variety of non-government institutions. The Rand Corporation has been one of the main conduits for this work and has in turn spun off, directly and indirectly, many of the key centres and researchers in the field, eg Herman Kahn, Olaf Helmer, and Theodore Gordon of the Hudson Institute, the Centre for Futures Research, and The Futures Group respectively. This “external” distribution of work has been continued through various “fcltures” support programmes of the National Science Foundation in recent years, but this policy is now changing. The Office of Technology Assessment conforms, in many senses, to the idea of a “look out” or ‘“early warning” institution whose purview goes beyond technology per se towards its longer-term impacts upon many dimensions of society. At present, such assessments are more retrospective than prospective, and tend to deal with existing technological impacts, but their recent work has begun to take on a more anticipatory perspective. One recent and significant change in official policy in 1974 has been the introduction ofthe “foresight” provision in the House Rules at the Congressional level. Though not spelt out specifically as a mandate for futures studies by the House, it calls upon its committees to consider the longer-term consequences and implications of legislative and administrative action. Another shift is the setting up of a “futures” informa~on group within the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. Quasi-governmenta activity in the USA has also taken the interesting direction of involving large-scale citizens’ groups in futures speculation at the state and regional level, eg Hawaii 2000. Others have followed this lead, notably Iowa 2000 and the Puget Sound Regional Conference. This would appear to be a direction which will be sustained and broadened in 1976 by similar activities of the Horizon section of the US bicentennial programme. One of the key contributions to futures studies was the Commission on the Year 2000 set up by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences under the chairmanship of Daniel Bell. Its report, in 1967, quickened scholarly interest in the area and remains a model for this kind of organised enquiry. National

and internatioxuxl professional

societies and projects

Many have entered the field more recently by allocating parts of the agenda of their annual meetings and congresses to future-oriented topics. Some specific disciplines, such as anthropology and sociology, are prominent here. Others have convened special conferences and programmes oriented towards particular long-range concerns. The World Academy of Art and Science has an ongoing series of joint international conferences specifically aimed towards long-term global policy reviews. The role of international governmental and non-governmental agencies in the field is somewhat less clear. Much ~ture-o~ented work is carried out within

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the framework of organisations whose principal mission may be a much wider one. Most of the major agencies, such as UNESCO, UNEP and FAO, have conducted specific studies on the future (eg the future of education, environmental impacts, and on the long-term world food supply respectively). Other non-government entities such as the International Council of Scientific Unions make a less direct but nonetheless important contribution via programmes like “Man in the Biosphere” which have long-term viewpoints. Among the most important modelling projects is the World Order Models Project. This was initiated by the World Law Fund. It has proceeded, via international study teams set up on various countries around the world, to explore alternative models for future world orders in the next 25 years. The basic approach is organised around agreed goals: “In designing the World Order Model.. . we assume the following three goal values : peace, welfare and identity”. 9 The DEMATEL project, funded by the Battelle Institute is one of a number of future-oriented studies being conducted by this organisation. Its principal aim is for a better understanding of the structure of worldwide problems. The acronym is derived from the creation of a simulation centre for testing global policies: DEcision-MAking Trial and Evaluation Laboratory. The two main components of this research activity are the development of the innovative methods required for dealing with the qualitative and events-linked aspects of societal problems, and the development of man/model interactive techniques for facilitating the dialogue between action and research. This Battelle programme is remarkably similar to R. B. Fuller’s World GamelO developed at the World Resources Inventory Center, Southern Illinois University in 1966, and carried on in various forms by student groups. The Club of Rome has sponsored several projects. The most well known is The Limits to Growth and the most recent was reported in the book Mankind at the Turning Point by Mahajlo Mesarovic and Eduard Pestel of the Systems Research Center, Case Western Reserve University (USA) and the Technical University Hanover (W. Germany) respectively. Several Club of Rome national groups have also been created in Sweden, Australia and Switzerland. The Club of Rome has been characterised not only by the scale of its projects but also by its careful attention to the wide circulation oftheir results, and by their deliberate efforts to bridge the gap between research of this kind and political policy making. The Bariloche Foundation of Buenos Aires, Argentina is engaged in a study of an egalitarian society. The Japan Work Team under Yoichi Kaya, University of Tokyo, has several projects underway, specifically one concerned with the transfer of labour-intensive industries to less developed countries. The Dutch Work Team is completing the first phase of its future projection of “Problems of Doubling World Population” under Hans Linneman, at the University of Amsterdam. Also in the Netherlands is the RIO project, under the direction of Jan Tinbergen, concerned with the future adjustments in world needs towards greater equity. Research

centres and institutes

The bulk of the substantive

FUTURES

work in futures studies is carried out in institutions

April 1976 II

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which are relatively small both in the number of personnel and in the amount of financial support they have. One interesting point which emerged in our earlier surveys, and still holds true, is that much of the pioneering large-scale multivariate futures projection is done by individuals and groups who are not in institutionalised programmes labelled as futures studies. They are often not primarily funded for such work but support it from their other professional activities. As the field gains in interest and validity such individual positions become more difficult. Futures societies There are now a variety of membership societies clustered around the theme of the future. They are not necessarily engaged in futures work themselves but their prime function is to encourage awareness. One of the earliest of these, still existing, is Mankind 2000. Originating in London, and given its title by pioneer futurist Rober Jungk, this society was one of the co-sponsors of the first futures studies Congressll in Oslo in 1967. Through its executive director, James Wellesley-Wesley, it has been actively engaged in the initiation and organisation of the later world congresses in Kyoto and Bucharest, and the Special Rome Conference on Human FuturesI arranged by IRADES, the Italian futures studies centre. Though never large or extensive in its membership, this society has been an important catalyst in the development of futures studies. The most active and the largest organisation of this type is the USA-based World Future Society, which has local chapters in several countries. The Society’s membership has risen from 200 in 1967 to over 12 000 by 1974. In addition to publishing its own journal Y7%eFuturist, it also has a programme of circulated papers, and recently launched its own book series.13 A recent and intriguing aspect of the society’s expanding activities is its Employment Service to help members find future-oriented jobs. Of a somewhat different character from the preceding societies is the World Futures Studies Federation. This organisation has been germinating since the 1967 Oslo meetings indicated the need for a more formal linking agency to aid information exchange between futures studies’ centres and individuals around the world. Individuals in the federation have been cautious because of the possibility of a premature closure of the field by the imposition of undue organisational structure; it has therefore developed rather slowly. At the third World Futures Research Congress in Bucharest, 197 1, a recommendation was finally adopted to create the Federation as a kind of international liaison structure for specialists in the field. In 1973, the Federation was formally inaugurated in Paris. The Founding President was Bertrand de Jouvenel, the current President is Johan Galtung. Its aims are to plan and carry out regional and international conferences and workshops; to serve as a forum to encourage cooperative research activities; and to promote the democratisation of future-oriented thinking. The last aim reflects a particular dichotomy between various futures workers, and is rather characteristic of the nature of the field itself. On the one hand, there is a continuing drive towards increased specialisation and professionalism

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An Assessment of Futures Studies Worldwide

amongst those engaged primarily with futures studies; on the other, there is the perceived need to engage the broadest and most diverse array of persons, both professionals and non-professionals, with futures-oriented thinking and action. This polarisation between “scholar” and “activist” continues. In summarising the core of the debate, Dror has underlined the required hard choices which must be taken by futurists if they want to prevent futures studies from becoming too many things to too great a diversity of persons, and thereby eventually degrading into becoming nothing to a11.14 It may be fitting to conclude this summary overview in the general tone of the remark quoted above. The survey on which this article is based attempted to broaden and, at the same time, redefine and focus the overall purview of futures studies. Our going beyond the formally defined province of futures scholarship to seek out other “futures” contributions is part of that scholarship itself. As with other fields, futures studies tend to suffer from an imbalance of as against synthesis and integration. In this analysis and differentiation, specific field, and in our particular period, where the whole-system effects of change are critically important, it is necessary to adjust this balance and work at integrating significant prospectives generated in all fields of human endeavour. We hope that our survey of the field, some of the results of which are described in this article, has helped to identify a greater diversity of these prospectives, and so enlarge the view of the field itself. References

and notes

1. The survey distinguished between individual and organisational responses. Table 1 is derived from over 400 organisational, and over 500 individual replies. TABLE Forecasting

(%I

1. ORIENTATION

OF WORK BEING DONE8

Research

(%I

Alternative futures Social impacts of technology Resource use Policy research Environmental Futures methodology Social priorities Value systems Population Manpower The individual in the future The family In the future Consumer affairs Other

{;;.;j

Alternative futures Social impacts of technology Value systems Policy research Futures methodology

[;;.;j

Planning

(%I

Organisations Economic Social Technological Resources Environmental Educational Population Scientific Manpower Cultural Market Military Other

(3.7)

. 110.2)

Social Economic

(4.8) (4.8) . _

Technological Environmental Urban Regional Educational Resources Corporate Scientific Political

(5.4)

(3-7)

Labour

(9-l)

Individuals

Technological

FUTURES

(13.0)

April 1978

f (8.7)

-

g*$

Social Technological Economic Corporate Educational Environmental

144

An Assessment of Futures Studies Worldwide

TABLE

l-(continued)

(%I

Forecasting

Research

Educational Market Scientific Population Manpower Mlil;rr y

Social priorities Environmental Resource utilisation The individual in the future The family in the future Population Manpower Consumer affairs Other

(6.6)

Planning Scientific Resources Urban Regional Political y;WW;

(3.4) Other (3.3)

Note:& The percentages are based on how orientations were ranked. aggregated and are given here as percentages of the total.

The weights

were

2. Seventeen methods were selected as most representative from the range of work in the field. Table 2 gives an overall view of the methods used. The percentage is based on the weight assigned via the number of choices ranked. If five methods were ranked in order, the first was given a weight of 5, the second a weight of 4, etc. TABLE

2. METHODS

RANKED

(%I

Method Organisations Expert panels Extrapolation techniques Individual “expert” forecasting Statistical models Brainstorming Scenario building Simulation Historical analogy Probabilistic forecasting Individuals Scenario building Extrapolation techniques Individual “expert” forecasting Expert panels Historical analogy Brainstorming Statistical models Probabilistic forecasting Simulation Note:* The percentages weights were aggregated

ACCORDING

TO PREFERENCE”

Method Delphi techniques Operational models Cross impact analysis Causal modelling Network analysis Relevance trees Gaming E;;;;;tual mapping

(%I

(2.3)

Delphi techniques Operational models Causal modelling Cross impact analysis Network analysis Relevance trees Gaming Contextual mapping Other

are based on how methods were ranked. The and are given here as percentages of the totals.

de Jouvenel, The Art of Conjecture (New York, Basic Books, 1967) ; 3. Bertrand Erich Jantsch, Technological Forecarting in Perspective (OECD, Paris, 1967) ; Erich Jantsch, “Forecasting and systems approach: a critical assessment”, paper presented at Conference on Long Term Planning and Forecasting, International Economic Association, December, 1972 ; Daniel Bell, “Twelve modes of predication”, Daedalus, Summer 1964, pages 845-878; Fred L. Polak, Prognostics (New York, Elsevier, 1971); James R. Bright and Milton E. F. Schoeman, eds., A Guide to Practical Technological Forecasting (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1973); Robert U. Ayres, Technological Forecasting and Long Range Planning (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1969) ; Charles de Hoghton, William Page, and Guy Streatfeild, . . . and Now the Future (London, Political and Economic Planning, 1971).

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An Assessment of Futures Studies Worldwide

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4. H. Wentworth Eldredge, “University education in futures studies: a mark III survey”, February 1975, Futures, 7 (I), pages 15-30. 5. Radovan Richta et al., Civilisation at the Cross-Roads (Prague, International Arts and Sciences Press, 1969), report published in several languages. 6. Andrew Sicinski, “The main trends of contemporary future research”, Polska 2000, 1974, pages 39-49. The author is a head of the Division of Social Prognoses, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences. 7. Correspondence notes from the Provisional Scientific Council for Government Policy, The Netherlands, 1974. 8. Andre Barsony and Fred G. Thompson, “Long term forecasting in private and public organisations in Canada” (and associated papers), Economic Council of Canada, November 1972. 9. Yoshikazu Sakamoto, “An approach to world order models”, paper presented at UNITAR/CNP/IP, 1973. 10. See John McHale, 2000+, special issue of Architectural Design, February 1967, pages 64-95, which includes an illustrated description of this project. 11. Robert Jungk, Johan Graltung, eds, Mankind 2000 (Norway, Universitetsforlaget, 1969; London, Allen and Unwin, 1969). 12. Human Futures (Guildford, UK, IPC Science & Technology Press, 1974), published by Futures in cooperation with IRADES. 13. The first title in this series is Joseph P. Martino, An Introduction to Technological Forecasting, The Futurist Library, volume 1 (New York, Gordon and Breach, 1975). 14. Yehezkel Dror, “A third look at futures studies”, paper presented at the Rome Special World Conference on Futures Research 1973; discussion extended in vadis ?“, Human Futures (Guildford, UK, IPC Y. Dror, “Futures studies-quo Science & Technology Press, 1974), pages 169-176.

The Futures Directory Compiled by John McHale and Magda Cordell McHale, Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton.

Center

for

Integrative

Based on surveys of over 1000 organisations and individuals in some 50 countries engaged in futures research and long-range planning and related activities. Each entry gives details of primary interest and ranked lists of direction of work and methods used. Time range, sources of funding and type of client for the work are also indicated. Geographical

and subject indexes.

ISBN

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Special offer to Futures’ subscribers-L10 received before 25 June 1976. Send orders IPC House,

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