9th International Conference of

Finland Futures Research Centre and Finland Futures Academy

in Collaboration with Turku 2011 – Finland’s Candidate for the European Capital of Culture 2011

WORKSHOP 4: Foresight Methods

Thursday 7 June at 14.30-16.30
Chair: Jari Kaivo-oja

 

Culture as Innovation in Vocational Higher Education
Lauri Kurkela (School of Technology Oulu, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland)

Soft System Methodology (SSM) has been used to analyze the Development Challenges of Organizational Learning, Curriculum Development, Learning, Teaching and Work Life Cooperation in Vocational Higher Education as an Cultural Innovation Process. SSM produces Shared Understanding of the Cultural Innovation Process as a Well-Managed Process. This Process can be described and understood through a Multilayer System with Layer Specific Paradigms and Resources. The Identified Layers are: (1) International, National and Regional Layer. (2) Institutional and Network Cooperation Layer. (3) Curriculum and Course Layer. (4) Layer of Learning Resources.  (5) Media Elements and Related Metadata Layer. Soft System Methodology guides on each Layer to identify Paradigms which affect the Synergy related to the Cultural Innovation Process. Identified Paradigms are tools to guide the Institutional Learning Process.

 

The Layers and Paradigms identified here help to understand more deeply this complex problem area. Paradigms related Formal and Informal Features are Key Factors to understand and guide the Cultural Innovation Process. The Cultural Innovation develops through Paradigm Shifts and Development of Resources. Resources are classified to: Pedagogical, Content and Functional Resources. If someone uses this model to Institutional Analyses, formulates a Vision, he/she also can use this model to determine the Desired Future Cultural State of the Institute and what kind of Paradigm Shifts and Development Tasks are needed to achieve the Desired Future State.
 

Information Sources for Anticipating Changes in
the Business Environment: A Case Study of Foresight Experts' Means for Grasping the Future
Elina Hiltunen (Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, Finland)

Environmental scanning is a method that organizations use to find out information about the future changes. Organizations may have business intelligent departments, market research units or scanning units whose job is to search for these changes. For scanning, various sources of information are used by these departments. Also employees constantly search for information intentionally or unintentionally from different sources as a part of their work practice.

My interest in this study is the sources of information that are excellent in reporting about the weak signals about future. In my study I have made a questionnaire for futures researchers and consultants, whose main task is to look for the future changes, of their ways to search information for the future. Especially, the sources of information these people use, were asked. The results of this study could be used for organizational purposes too in prioritising the sources to scan. 

Changing Identities – Changing Designs: Building up a Large Foresight Program in the Field of Cultural Evolution Research
Sam Inkinen & Jari Koskinen (CID Research Group, Finland) & Jari
Kaivo-oja (CID Research Group and Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, Finland)

Future oriented thinking is vital for any forward planning or policy activity to be able to meet future challenges proactively in organizations. The paper discusses emerging challenges in cultural evolution research and analyses. The themes of the discussion in the paper are connected to the CID Research Group, which is a new starting research group in Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC). The idea of the paper is define main visions, goals and foresight scoping approaches for the CID Research Group. As we know today, it is important to make good and detailed scoping in the changing contexts of foresight designing and planning, running the foresight process and follow up of foresight process and results.

CID Research Group & Lab is a transdisciplinary group, which operates under Finland Futures Research Centre. The CID derives from Changing Identities, but it can also be attached to the words Changing Design. The expertise of the group is based on a wide, international and transdisciplinary networks. The CID Research Group combines transdisciplinary research with exploratory activities. The group focuses on developing expertise in design, architecture, communications, marketing, art, media and the relevant technologies.

Generally defined, the CID Research Group is going to focus on social, cultural and technological changes at global and local levels. CID Research Group & Lab, under this umbrella theme, investigates:

  • Social, cultural and technological changes (global and local levels)

  • Changes in the expertise, knowledge and competencies occurring at the borders and crossroads of different professional fields

  • Smart environments and materials, applications of nanotechnology and themes related to the ubiquitous (r)evolution

  • Practical pioneer projects in the fields of design, architecture, communications, marketing, art and media

 

The scoping of the CID Research Group is having the following perspectives:

  • Holistic understanding and cross-competence development,

  • Critical analysis,

  • Conseptual understanding and R&D,

  • Experimental projects,

  • Living labs, human testbeds,

  • General context: creative economy, creative industries,

  • Some key notions and directions (economy): creative economy, experience economy, entertainment economy, design economy, story economy, image economy, participatory economy,

  • Some key notions and directions (society): information society, media society, techno society, biosociety, risk society,

  • Globalization - its consequences (sustainable development, global governance, social responsibility, corporate citizenship, etc.),

  • Global and local integrated = glocal (new regionalism),

  • Global signs of change; trends and weak signals,

  • Speed: accelerating rhythm of life and economy,

 

The CID Research Group is focusing its research on new media: social media, interactive media, hybrid media, cross-competences and transdisciplinarity analyses, on creativity and innovative environments, accelerating intelligence, and local special issues.

 

New media research field includes various special topics of research including the following topics:

  • Participatory media (blogs, wikis, RSS, tagging, social bookmarking, media sharing [music, photo, video], mashups, podcasts, participatory video projects, videoblogs),

  • Virtual societies, virtual lifestyles,

  • New trends and developments in marketing: viral & buzz marketing, long tail, news sources,

  • Wellness/well-being technologies, therapeutic well-being design, and

  • Socio-economic impacts of ubiquitous (r)evolution.

 

Cross-competences and transdisciplinarity topics of the CID Research Group are the following ones:

  • New requirements for knowledge and understanding,

  • Cultural changes of various competence fields,

  • Birth of new competence areas,

  • Cross-competence training and consulting,

  • Fusion of competencies, and

  • Integrated knowledge management

 

Creativity and innovative environments topics of the CID Research Group are the following ones:

  • Creativity and serendipity,

  • Innovation systems/environments & branding (design, architecture, communication, marketing, art and media),

  • New innovation process models,

  • Fusion of technology waves and innovations,

  • Participatory innovation environment (24/7 principle),

  • 24 hour DesignLab (online design community & online research community, real time problem solving, brainstorming lab),

  • Social and lifestyle companies,

  • Cross-competence and education, and

  • New viewponts, ways and means for education (24 hour LearningLab).

 

Accelerating intelligence research field is focused on the following sub-themes:

  • Future trends of computing: nanotechnology, quantum computing, grid computing, AI (artificial intelligence), eletronic paper, RSS, personal info agents, etc.,

  • From connecting people to connecting everything (ubiquitous),

  • Ambience design, ambient intelligence,

  • Ubiquitous (r)evolution,

  • Smart materials and spaces,

  • Smart architecture and smart advertising,

  • Wearable computing (WearComp), wearable intelligence,

  • Participatory branding (online, do your own brand),

  • Emergence of innovation media,

  • Co-operation between design and technology (design and science), and

  • Accelerating intelligence and education.

Local dimensions research field is focused on the following sub-themes:

  • Locality as brand - participatory models (project)

  • Cross-competence training & development (design, architecture, communication, marketing, art and media mixed with other locality development competence areas),

  • Sustainable information society and civic participation, and

  • Challenges of creative areas (city, town, region, etc.).

We can conclude that it is important to make detailed scoping process for foresight activities in the field of cultural evolution process. There are many emerging research topics as well as novel issues, which can change our societies in a large scale. In the very special case of the CID Research Group, the scoping process was done by small expert team, which is having a long experience history in the field of social and cultural evolution studies.

There are many other alternative ways to do scoping in the cultural evolution studies. For example, stakeholders and larger expert networks as well as laymen can be one source for scoping foresight activities. In the future development of the CID Research Group the scoping of R&D activities will continue. This implies that the team is having a rolling priorities research agenda, which is changing as times go by. The strategic advantage of small expert group is a strong commitment and focusing on the selected topics and issues.

 

The conference organisers reserve all rights to
any programme or schedule changes.