Toward Tomorrow: Co-Shaping Desirable Futures through Prospective Theorizing

Toward Tomorrow: Co-Shaping Desirable Futures through Prospective Theorizing

The future is not an extension of the present. Faced with societal challenges and the growing expectation that our research remains relevant and responsive, our scholarly community is increasingly called upon to develop ideas, theories and practices that can meaningfully engage with worlds that do not yet exist.

Yet researching futures poses a fundamental challenge: how can we conceptualize, study and intervene in phenomena that are not observable, not stable and not fully knowable?

This workshop builds on emerging conversations in prospective theorizing, design science and future- oriented scholarship that advocate a profound epistemic change — the move from seeking theory-to- world fit aimed at explaining what already is, to seeking world-to-theory fit aimed at generating what could become. Together, we aim to build a community of future-oriented scholars, stimulate methodological innovation, reflect critically on desirable futures and co-shape a shared research agenda.

Workshop Objectives

• Build a community of future-oriented scholars across disciplines.
• Stimulate methodological innovation in prospective and design-driven theorizing.
• Reflect critically on what counts as desirable futures and how they can be studied.
• Co-create a shared research agenda for collective publication.

Expected Outputs

• A shared, forward-looking research agenda.
• Collaborative project ideas developed across participant teams.
• A community white paper or collective publication.

Day 1: Setting the stage, problematising, framing, methods

• 10:00 Welcome and scene-setting (30 min) Pablo
• 10:30 S1 Why and What (60 min) Ali’s reflection on survey findings and provocation, then synthesis of collective starting points
• 11:45 S2 Problematising and Questioning Futures (75 min) Nicky’s provocation and group discussion
• 13:00 Lunch
• 14:00 S3 Framing futures (75 min) Dimo’s provocation and group discussion
• 15:30 S4 Studying futures - Methods (75 min) Pablo’s provocation and group discussion
• 16:45 Close of Day 1
• 18:30 Dinner at the Foot Pit + guest speakers: The Riverwalk, 1 Framwellgate Waterside, Durham, DH1 4SL (pre-order, menu will be circulated a week before the event)

Day 2: Theorising, contributions, presentations, collective paper

• 09:15 S5 Theorising futures (75 min) Marvin’s provocation and group discussion
• 10:45 S6 Making contributions (75 min) Alice’s provocation and group discussion
• 12:00 S7 Presentations (60 min) lightning talks (in parallel tracks) before lunch
• 13:00 Networking lunch to discuss ideas
• 14:00 S8 The co-authored paper(s)? (75 min) argument, structure, timeline; etc.
• 15:15 - 15:30 Close of Day 2