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FAQs About the Futures Field What is the History of the Field?
FAQs About the Futures Field What is the History of the Field? 
| What is the History of the Field? |
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| Written by APF Admin | |
| Sunday, 26 November 2006 | |
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In the US, the formal study of the future began after World War II when Herman Kahn of RAND started using scenarios to explore the consequences of nuclear war. In Europe, Bertrand de Jouvenal’s Art of Conjecture was a key development in the emergence of futures studies there. Kahn found scenarios to be a useful tool for enabling people to “Think the Unthinkable.” In France, Gaston Berger founded the Centre International de Prospective and the important journal entitled Prospective. The 1960s saw the emergence of several consulting firms and think tanks devoted to futures studies plus the formation of the World Future Society. De Jouvenal founded the Association Internationale de Futuribles Association and the journal Futuribles in France. Kahn went on to found the Hudson Institute, and other RAND analysts, such as Olaf Helmer and Ted Gordon, went on to become futurists, and helped found the Institute for the Future with Gordon later breaking off to found The Futures Group. SRI became a focal point of futures research under the guidance of Willis Harman in the 1960s.The Institute for Alternative Futures was also founded in the late 1960s. Royal Dutch Shell became the most recognized corporate practitioner of futures studies in the 1970s, using scenarios under the guidance of Pierre Wack, who learned/borrowed the technique from Herman Kahn. Shell later produced several leading “2nd generation futurists.” Since then, futures has spread beyond its roots in the US and Europe to become the global movement that it is today. Of course, thinking about future has been going on long before the field of futures studies emerged. |
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