General Presentation
Our foresight studies at Futuribles are organized around three major divisions, acting in close concert.
1. Foresight Thinking Division
At Futuribles, we are committed to producing foresight thinking that provides public and private organizations, the general public, members of the association or readers of the journal with insight into major change, both current and future. This foresight thinking happens on various different scales.
At Futuribles, we undertake constant strategic monitoring and foresight analysis on the large-scale, structural developments that are of importance to all organizations (in the spheres of the environment, energy, geopolitics, technology, the economy, society etc.). This foresight analysis work, carried out as part of the Vigie system (named after the French for a naval look-out), means structuring a reasoned account of the future, based on the current state of knowledge. It is about spotting large-scale, structural trends and emergent ones (or weak signals), identifying the main uncertainties for the future, understanding the behaviour of actors and envisaging the possible scenarios (including breaks with the past).
It isn’t our aim to provide an exhaustive overview of the world of the future, but to offer useful insights for the strategic thinking of the intended recipients of these studies. Above and beyond regular publications (literature reviews, strategic monitoring notes, foresight analyses), the biennial Vigie Report offers a wide-ranging vista of the future (the theme in 2018 was Lifestyles up to the year 2050; in 2020 it was Scenarios for geo-economic disruption and in 2022, major anthropological transformations).
At Futuribles, we also conduct targeted foresight exploration on issues of general interest or of interest to the members of the association. That work may consist in developing foresight analyses on topical subjects that represent significant shocks or disruptions (recently, on the global pandemic and on the war in Ukraine). These may also be carried out within the framework of long-term projects conducted by the Futuribles International Association, such as the Health 2040 Foresight Forum, the Foresight Forum on Territories, or the Vigie Alimentation strategic monitoring project on food.
Every two months, Futuribles journal publishes a selection of articles that offer both future-oriented insights into current events and long-term explorations of major issues that receive insufficient attention in public policy or in organizations’ strategies.
Over and above its written output, Futuribles mounts many events to discuss future-related issues — and, indeed, to construct possible responses to them collectively. There are, for example, regular working groups, round tables and study days. Every two years, a two-day Futures Forum is held — a major gathering in the foresight world.
2. Research, Innovation and Training Division
As a pioneering organization in the foresight field, Futuribles performs a function of monitoring, storehousing and updating the methods, concepts, techniques and tools that are of service in foresight exercises. Futuribles also organizes training aimed at organizations that are looking to renew or reinvent themselves through foresight.
Futuribles’ horizon-scanning work on methods, concepts and tools is done through a process of internet monitoring, thanks to its membership of the main global foresight networks (Association of Professional Futurists, World Futures Studies Federation, etc.) and the team’s personal contacts with the main researchers advancing foresight methodology in France and elsewhere.
For several years now, the Futuribles International Association has carried out a project called Prospective and Strategic Foresight Toolbox, which publishes easily digestible information sheets on the methods and tools of futures studies and strategic foresight. These information sheets, written in English and/or French, are aimed at organizations that wish to implement foresight approaches to inform their strategic thinking and innovation policies. Most are freely accessible on the Futuribles website.
Futuribles International also offers five strategic foresight software packages and online tools, developed by Michel Godet and François Bourse.
Alongside the Department of Foresight and Sustainable Development of the French Conservatoire national des arts et métiers and in cooperation with Michel Godet, Futuribles has been involved in the creation of ‘Prospective Lab’, a space for collaboration and dialogue around foresight studies. The aim is to promote advances in both the concepts and practices of applied foresight. The Lab is now managed by Futuribles International and plays an active role in updating foresight exercises to ensure they incorporate advances in knowledge and are also designed to take account of their conditions of application.
Futuribles International is a certified training body in the field of strategic monitoring and foresight applied to the formulation of public policy and organizational strategy. The association provides regular training sessions on foresight concepts, methods and exercises, and on specific themes. Each year, around 350 people are trained by Futuribles.
3. Foresight Exercise Support Division
At Futuribles, we offer our skills base to help organizations incorporate long-term considerations into their decision-making and foster the involvement of active agents in the construction of the future.
This support takes two main forms which are often complementary: the production of thematic foresight studies, and the design/support of exercises for developing public policy or organizational strategy.