Mapping Foresight & FLA Practices

Just like foresight, most FLA practices are the result of a systematic work to promote effective processes to proactively think about the future. FLA can be applied to a variety of research areas or knowledge domains, such as natural sciences, medical sciences, engineering and technology, agricultural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.

The original purpose of previous mapping activities was to analyse key features and characteristics of collected foresight exercises and describe relevant issues about foresight practices in Europe and other regions of the world. However, the extension of the mapping to cover a wider range of forward-looking activities (FLA) – i.e. foresight, horizon scanning, forecasting and impact assessment – will allow us to expand our knowledge, learning and absorptive capacities. In addition to the analysis of key features and characteristics of each of these activities will help us identify commonalities and differences of various approaches to futures research.

Here we focus on one practical question: How to map FLA practices?

The answer to this question involves the mapping of the core elements of FLA practices. We should also highlight that in the foresight literature and previous mapping activities we have considered the sponsors and target audiences in the mapping of FLA practices. While this was convenient in the past, we have recognised that these and other elements associated to the participatory nature of FLA deserve more attention and, for this reason, we will consider them in the mapping of FLA players. Similarly, “formal outputs”, recommendations and impacts are considered in the mapping of FLA outcomes (Section 6).