The interdisciplinary concept of strategic foresight in the trans-disciplinary of futures studies: what is it and why does it matter?

Abstract

The emergence of the trans-disciplinary of futures studies after World War II put aside prophet-like fortune-telling and predictions. This trans-disciplinary, having undergone ups and downs during the recent decades, always tried to provide some scientific propositions about the future. Among these, different approaches and concepts were proposed in the field of futures studies, and each despite commonalities has specific futures and distinctions. One of these most important concepts is the concept of strategic foresight. This paper aims at exploring the quiddity of this concept. First, the significance and position of the strategic foresight in futures studies was defined and delineated, and then the interdisciplinary identity of this concept and its epistemological basis were analyzed. The findings indicated that strategic foresight as an interdisciplinary is progressing, and unlike some other, approaches of futures studies were not associated with failure and decline. This interdisciplinary benefits from some kind of inter-paradigm rationality, and consistent with its features it can be highly efficient in different contexts of long-term planning of the country, especially in economy. Finally, some suggestions were made to pay more attention to and apply strategic foresight in the country.

Keywords

• strategy
• epistemology
• universal rationality
• inter-paradigm rationality
• experimental rationality
• value-based rationality
• pragmatism