FUTURES OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

The Environmental Future: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for EPA

This report, prepared for the National Council on Environmental Technology and Policy and the Administrator of the EPA, reviews emerging trends and developments important for environmental protection.  It sets out  a foresight framework which divides human activities into six broad themes for analysis.  The report analyzes each of these themes and provides an overview of emerging developments. It also describes the Desired State of the future and the Opportunities for EPA to move forward.  The opportunities are formal recommendations for the EPA Administrator and the Agency’s senior leadership.  The report also identifies several overarching proposals to improve EPA’s ability to anticipate and address emerging environmental challenges. Click here to view the full report.

Anticipatory Democracy: People in Politics of the Future

Anticipatory democracy is an approach to problem solving that combines future consciousness with broad-based public participation. In Anticipatory Democracy: People in Politics of the Future, IAF President Clement Bezold assembled the ideas and thinking of leading futurists, professional planners, and future-oriented citizens. They address issues ranging from housing and health care to ecology and technology in settings as diverse as Congress, private corporations, voluntary organizations and urban black communities. Published in 1978 by Random House, now out of print.

Anticipatory Democracy Revisited

In 2006, IAF founder Clem Bezold revisited the concept of "anticipatory democracy" he first studied in the 1970's.  Click here for the PDF document.

Scenario Exercise on Moving Toward a Sustainable Energy Economy

The UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) wanted to examine the future using scenarios to consider what social science research related to sustainable energy will be most important.  Research was carried out by IAF and the University of Manchester's Institute of Innovation Research (IoIR).  The central objective of the Scenario Exercise on Moving Toward a Sustainable Energy Economy was to develop recommendations on economic and social research priorities.  Another objective was to recommend improvements in how such research should be carried out and how the research can be communicated and utilized most effectively.  Click here for the full report (large file).

Cyberdemocracy 2001 - A Global Scan

This global scan conducted by IAF in 2000-01 looks at the use of information technology to support democratic governance.  It explores trends in voting technology, agenda setting, policy participation and public participation in government.  Click here for the PDF report.

Reinventing Courts for the 21st Century

IAF designed a guidebook for visioning and futures thinking within the court system.  The guidebook includes detailed explanation of visioning, key trends and scenarios, vision workshop design, and vision exercises that can be tailored to meet the needs of different court systems.  More than 30 state courts conducted scenario planning exercises, most of them with the materials provided by IAF.  Click here for the PDF guidebook.

Anticipatory Democracy / Futures Commissions

This is a summary by Clem Bezold of an approach for the Council on State Governments’ session on 21st Century Transformational Initiatives (STI) effort. Click here to read the summary.

Judging the Future : Proceedings of the Antioch School of Law/IAF Conference on the Futures of the American Legal System

Edited by James Dator and Clement Bezold, this book resulted from IAF’s first conference on the future and the legal system.  It included a set of scenarios by IAF co-founder James Dator that consider expectable, very challenging, and transformative scenarios; visions for court systems, and implications for current policy.