Creating Better Futures

Creating Better Futures PDF Author: James A. Ogilvy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019976087X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
As a founder and managing director of Global Business Network, James Ogilvy helped develop the technique of scenario planning, which has become an integral part of strategic thinking in both business and government. Now Ogilvy shows how we can use this cutting-edge method for social change in our own neighborhoods. In Creating Better Futures, Ogilvy presents a profound new vision of how the world is changing--and how it can be changed for the better. Ogilvy argues that self-defined communities, rather than individuals or governments, have become the primary agents for social change. Towns, professional associations, and interest groups of all kinds help shape the future in all the ways that matter most, from schools and hospitals to urban development. The key to improvement is scenario planning--a process that draws on groups of people, both lay and expert, to draft narratives that spell out possible futures, some to avoid, some inspiring hope. Scenario planning has revolutionized both public and private planning, leading to everything from the diverse product lines that have revived the auto industry, to a timely decision by the state of Colorado to avoid pouring millions into an oil-shale industry that never materialized. But never before has anyone proposed that it be taken up by society as a whole. Drawing on years of experience in both academia and the private sector, where he developed both a keen sense of how businesses work best and an abiding passion for changing the world, James Ogilvy provides the tools we need to create better communities: better health, better education, better lives.

Creating Better Futures

Creating Better Futures PDF Author: James A. Ogilvy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019976087X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
As a founder and managing director of Global Business Network, James Ogilvy helped develop the technique of scenario planning, which has become an integral part of strategic thinking in both business and government. Now Ogilvy shows how we can use this cutting-edge method for social change in our own neighborhoods. In Creating Better Futures, Ogilvy presents a profound new vision of how the world is changing--and how it can be changed for the better. Ogilvy argues that self-defined communities, rather than individuals or governments, have become the primary agents for social change. Towns, professional associations, and interest groups of all kinds help shape the future in all the ways that matter most, from schools and hospitals to urban development. The key to improvement is scenario planning--a process that draws on groups of people, both lay and expert, to draft narratives that spell out possible futures, some to avoid, some inspiring hope. Scenario planning has revolutionized both public and private planning, leading to everything from the diverse product lines that have revived the auto industry, to a timely decision by the state of Colorado to avoid pouring millions into an oil-shale industry that never materialized. But never before has anyone proposed that it be taken up by society as a whole. Drawing on years of experience in both academia and the private sector, where he developed both a keen sense of how businesses work best and an abiding passion for changing the world, James Ogilvy provides the tools we need to create better communities: better health, better education, better lives.

Creating Better Futures

Creating Better Futures PDF Author: James A. Ogilvy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195146110
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Presents a vision of how the world is changing, and how it can be changed for the better. Argues that self-defined communities, rather than individuals or governments, have become the primary agents for social change. Shows how to apply scenario planning to create better communities: better health, better education, better lives.

Creating Futures

Creating Futures PDF Author: Michel Godet
Publisher:
ISBN: 9782717852448
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


A Small Farm Future

A Small Farm Future PDF Author: Chris Smaje
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603589023
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A modern classic of the new agrarianism "Chris Smaje...shows that the choice is clear. Either we have a small farm future, or we face collapse and extinction."—Vandana Shiva "Every young person should read this book."—Richard Heinberg In a groundbreaking debut, farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organizing society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, sanest and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilisation—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival. Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically. Challenging both conventional wisdom and utopian blueprints, A Small Farm Future offers rigorous original analysis of wicked problems and hidden opportunities in a way that illuminates the path toward functional local economies, effective self-provisioning, agricultural diversity and a shared earth. Perfect for readers of both Wendell Berry and Thomas Piketty, A Small Farm Future is a refreshing, new outlook on a way forward for society—and a vital resource for activists, students, policy makers, and anyone looking to enact change.

Prototyping Across the Disciplines

Prototyping Across the Disciplines PDF Author: Jennifer Roberts-Smith
Publisher: Intellect (UK)
ISBN: 9781789381801
Category : Industrial design
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Fields of study progress not by understanding more about what already exists, although that is a useful step, but by making guesses about possible better futures. The guesses consist of small forays into those futures, using strategies that are variously called learning through making, research through design, or more simply: prototyping. While traditionally associated primarily with industrial design, and more recently with software development, prototyping is now used as an important tool in areas ranging from materials engineering to landscape architecture to the digital humanities. This book collects current theories and methods of prototyping across a dozen disciplines and illustrates them through case studies of actual projects, whether in industry or the classroom. Prototyping Across the Disciplines provides context, a theoretical framework, and a set of methodologies for interdisciplinary collaboration in design. Each chapter offers a different disciplinary perspective on prototyping and provides a case study as a point of comparison for identifying commonalities and divergences in current practices. In examining the central role of prototyping in design research, this edited collection demonstrates theoretical and methodological transferability across disciplines not typically thought to be related, including post-human design, theatre, tabletop game design, landscape architecture, and arts entrepreneurship.

The Work of the Future

The Work of the Future PDF Author: David H. Autor
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262547309
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.

Create the Future + The Innovation Handbook

Create the Future + The Innovation Handbook PDF Author: Jeremy Gutsche
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
ISBN: 173243915X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Learn to Innovate and Make Real Change In our era of disruption and possibility, there are so many great opportunities within your grasp; however, most smart and successful people miss out. Unfortunately, your capabilities are limited by the seven traps of path dependency, which cause you to repeat past decisions. These traps can limit you from seeing the potential of what could be. If you could overcome these traps, what could you accomplish? How much more successful could you be? Create the Future teaches you how to think disruptively, providing specific steps to create real innovation and change. This book combines Jeremy's high energy, provocative thinking with tactics that have been battle-tested through thousands of his team's projects advising leading innovators like Disney, Starbucks, Amex, IBM, Adidas, Google, and NASA. On top of all that, this is a double-sided book, paired with The Innovation Handbook, a revised edition of Jeremy's award-winning book, Exploiting Chaos.

Colleges That Create Futures, 2nd Edition

Colleges That Create Futures, 2nd Edition PDF Author: The Princeton Review
Publisher: Princeton Review
ISBN: 152471030X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
CHOOSE A COLLEGE THAT WILL LAUNCH A CAREER! When it comes to getting the most out of college, the experiences you have outside the classroom are just as important as what you study. Colleges That Create Futures looks beyond the usual “best of” college lists to highlight 50 schools that empower students to discover practical, real-world applications for their talents and interests. The schools in this book feature distinctive research, internship, and hands-on learning programs—all the info you need to help find a college where you can parlay your passion into a successful post-college career. Inside, You'll Find: • In-depth profiles covering career services, internship support, student group activity, alumni satisfaction, noteworthy facilities and programs, and more • Candid assessments of each school’s academics from students, current faculty, and alumni • Unique hands-on learning opportunities for students across majors • Testimonials on career prep from alumni in business, education, law, and much more *************************** What makes Colleges That Create Futures important? You've seen the headlines—lately the news has been full of horror stories about how the college educational system has failed many recent grads who leave school with huge debt, no job prospects, and no experience in the working world. Colleges That Create Futures identifies schools that don't fall into this trap but instead prepare students for successful careers! How are the colleges selected? Schools are selected based on survey results on career services, grad school matriculation, internship support, student group and government activity, alumni activity and salaries, and noteworthy facilities and programs.

Designing Suburban Futures

Designing Suburban Futures PDF Author: June Williamson
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610915275
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Suburbs deserve a better, more resilient future. June Williamson shows that suburbs aren't destined to remain filled with strip malls and excess parking lots; they can be reinvigorated through inventive design. Today, dead malls, aging office parks, and blighted apartment complexes are being retrofitted into walkable, sustainable communities. Williamson provides a broad vision of suburban reform based on the best schemes submitted in Long Island's highly successful "Build a Better Burb" competition. Many of the design ideas and plans operate at a regional scale, tackling systems such as transit, aquifer protection, and power generation. While some seek to fundamentally transform development patterns, others work with existing infrastructure to create mixed-use, shared networks. Designing Suburban Futures offers concrete but visionary strategies to take the sprawl out of suburbia, creating a vibrant new, suburban form.

Learning Futures

Learning Futures PDF Author: Keri Facer
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113672821X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
In the twenty-first century, educators around the world are being told that they need to transform education systems to adapt young people for the challenges of a global digital knowledge economy. Too rarely, however, do we ask whether this future vision is robust, achievable or even desirable, whether alternative futures might be in development, and what other possible futures might demand of education. Drawing on ten years of research into educational innovation and socio-technical change, working with educators, researchers, digital industries, students and policy-makers, this book questions taken-for-granted assumptions about the future of education. Arguing that we have been working with too narrow a vision of the future, Keri Facer makes a case for recognizing the challenges that the next two decades may bring, including: the emergence of new relationships between humans and technology the opportunities and challenges of aging populations the development of new forms of knowledge and democracy the challenges of climate warming and environmental disruption the potential for radical economic and social inequalities. This book describes the potential for these developments to impact critical aspects of education – including adult-child relationships, social justice, curriculum design, community relationships and learning ecologies. Packed with examples from around the world and utilising vital research undertaken by the author while Research Director at the UK’s Futurelab, the book helps to bring into focus the risks and opportunities for schools, students and societies over the coming two decades. It makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationship between education and social and technological change, and presents a set of key strategies for creating schools better able to meet the emerging needs of their students and communities. An important contribution to the debates surrounding educational futures, this book is compelling reading for all of those, including educators, researchers, policy-makers and students, who are asking the question 'how can education help us to build desirable futures for everyone in the context of social and technological change?'