To this point in time humanity has successfully responded to the challenges to its
existence. A viewpoint becoming widespread is that humanity will have to respond
to even greater challenges to its existence in the future. If adequate responses are
not formulated to these emerging challenges then a dystopian future for humanity
is a strong possibility. While experience can teach us how to act in the future it is
the express intent of this research that we should not have to experience dystopia
in order to learn how to prevent it. The innate human capacity for foresight has
played a pivotal role in responding to past challenges, however, a more extensive
form of foresight will need to be developed to respond to these future challenges.
That form of foresight will need to be both individual and social in nature.
Part I of this thesis generates an original theory of how foresight could develop
in individuals beyond our innate capacities. The theory argues that foresight ca-
pacities develop through the expansion of individual consciousness, particularly the
individual's sense of `self'. The theory is synthesised from the work of a num-
ber of psychological researchers including Jean Piaget, Jane Loevinger, Lawrence
Kohlberg, Clare Graves, Susan Cook-Greuter and Ken Wilber.
Part II is a two year study of students undertaking a postgraduate course in
strategic foresight. The study is utilised to add preliminary empirical support to
the theory proposed in Part I.
Part III integrates the previous two parts to further elaborate the attributes and
dynamics of individual foresight development before describing how social foresight
capacity can emerge from individual development. Expanded individual and so-
cial foresight capacities are achievable, but cannot be assumed. The contribution
of this thesis is to give a theoretical base to such development and to outline fur-
ther research. The development of individual foresight and the emergence of social
expressions of foresight can offer preferable, and not dystopian, futures for both
current and future generations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216603 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Hayward, Peter C., n/a |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright Peter C. Hayward |
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