Paper short abstract:

Building on recent writings on transdisciplinary science, this paper calls for a better understanding of the actual acts through which the future becomes represented in social and material forms and how this affects the relation between public deliberation, exchange and social inclusion.

Paper long abstract:

It is widely acknowledged that overcoming the current planetary crisis warrants new ways of producing and integrating knowledge in in policy processes. The depth, width and urgency of issues likes climate change requires, it is argued, knowledge practices that not only explain change but that actively help to shape sustainable development. A key issue in this respect is the way in which specific epistemic practices like cost-benefit analysis and design thinking integrate ideas, feelings, analysis, and aspirations with building legitimacy and capacity for achieving change in practice together with diverse societal actors. Building on recent writings on transdisciplinary science, this paper calls for a better understanding of the actual acts through which the future becomes represented in social and material forms and how this affects the relation between public deliberation, exchange and social inclusion. It introduces and develops the concept of 'Techniques of Futuring' defined as practices bringing together actors around one or more imagined futures and through which actors come to share particular orientations for action. The paper introduces a theoretical framework that is empirically explored and refined through a case study of a transdisciplinary research and design project on the Neighborhood of the Future.