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Futures orientation at the universities
Books
275
Futures orientation at the universities Olaf Helmer The Future us an Academic lxscipl&ke Ciba Foundation Symposium 36 (new
series) xiii + 232 pages, Dfl 38, $15.95
(DA 25,
paper), Amsterdam, Excerpta Medica; New York, American Elsevier, 1975 $10.50
book is the edited transcript of a symposium held in London in February, 1975, under the auspices of the Ciba Foundation. The distinguished roster of participants speaks for itself; it consists of John Black, Yehezkel Dror, Wentworth Eldredge, John Francis, Frederic Jevons, Alexander King, Anders Lundberg, Sir Walter Perry, John Platt, Harold Shane, K. Valaskakis, and C. II. Waddington, all of whom gave presentations at the meeting, plus ten discussants of comparable stature. While the transcript of presentations by a sizeable group of speakers cannot be expected to yield a systematic treatment of a topic, the present onewhich is no exception from this rulerepresents an unusually readable and informative specimen of the genre. The principal thought which came through in many of the presentations, and perhaps most forcefully so in those by King and Platt, is that there is a great urgency for the universities to become more future-oriented by encouraging and supplying the kind of research and teaching that concerns itself with finding solutions to the increasingly complex problems of our society. It is here that the new relevance of the universities must be sought: in THIS
Olaf Helmer is Harold Quinton Professor of Futures Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Iiniversity of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA.
FUTURES
June
1876
the development of interdisciplina~ methods, in the fostering of a deeper understanding of the intricate crossimpacts between social trends and technological achievements, in the encouragement of novel, even heretical, ideas that might ease the consequences of the accelerating rate of change in our time, and in the conversion of traditional, more esoteric, attitudes within academia to a pragmatic application of such methods, insights, and ideas to the planning of our society’s future. In the consensus of concern over these needs, the specific epistemological question of whether the future can be considered an academic discipline was barely touched. Rather than accept the study of the future as a new discipline, the implied sentiment seems to be that disciplines as such should play a less dominant role in the future organisational structure of the universities. Futures research, after all, is properly viewed as a part of operations research. Its methods and conceptual constructs are often ad hoc in their nature; they supply the bridge from disciplinary theory to interdisciplinary technologyboth physical and social. Only by adding an interdisciplinary, future-oriented activity to the traditional pattern of disciplina~ research and instruction can the universities hope to play their urgently required role in supplying the intellectual foundation for the long-term planning and decision-making processes through which the future of our society will be determined. To all who are concerned over the future direction of our universities and the need for greater relevance of their efforts this book should be recommended for its thoughtful ideas.
275
Futures orientation at the universities Olaf Helmer The Future us an Academic lxscipl&ke Ciba Foundation Symposium 36 (new
series) xiii + 232 pages, Dfl 38, $15.95
(DA 25,
paper), Amsterdam, Excerpta Medica; New York, American Elsevier, 1975 $10.50
book is the edited transcript of a symposium held in London in February, 1975, under the auspices of the Ciba Foundation. The distinguished roster of participants speaks for itself; it consists of John Black, Yehezkel Dror, Wentworth Eldredge, John Francis, Frederic Jevons, Alexander King, Anders Lundberg, Sir Walter Perry, John Platt, Harold Shane, K. Valaskakis, and C. II. Waddington, all of whom gave presentations at the meeting, plus ten discussants of comparable stature. While the transcript of presentations by a sizeable group of speakers cannot be expected to yield a systematic treatment of a topic, the present onewhich is no exception from this rulerepresents an unusually readable and informative specimen of the genre. The principal thought which came through in many of the presentations, and perhaps most forcefully so in those by King and Platt, is that there is a great urgency for the universities to become more future-oriented by encouraging and supplying the kind of research and teaching that concerns itself with finding solutions to the increasingly complex problems of our society. It is here that the new relevance of the universities must be sought: in THIS
Olaf Helmer is Harold Quinton Professor of Futures Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Iiniversity of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA.
FUTURES
June
1876
the development of interdisciplina~ methods, in the fostering of a deeper understanding of the intricate crossimpacts between social trends and technological achievements, in the encouragement of novel, even heretical, ideas that might ease the consequences of the accelerating rate of change in our time, and in the conversion of traditional, more esoteric, attitudes within academia to a pragmatic application of such methods, insights, and ideas to the planning of our society’s future. In the consensus of concern over these needs, the specific epistemological question of whether the future can be considered an academic discipline was barely touched. Rather than accept the study of the future as a new discipline, the implied sentiment seems to be that disciplines as such should play a less dominant role in the future organisational structure of the universities. Futures research, after all, is properly viewed as a part of operations research. Its methods and conceptual constructs are often ad hoc in their nature; they supply the bridge from disciplinary theory to interdisciplinary technologyboth physical and social. Only by adding an interdisciplinary, future-oriented activity to the traditional pattern of disciplina~ research and instruction can the universities hope to play their urgently required role in supplying the intellectual foundation for the long-term planning and decision-making processes through which the future of our society will be determined. To all who are concerned over the future direction of our universities and the need for greater relevance of their efforts this book should be recommended for its thoughtful ideas.