Futuring the Rural

 


Futuring is imagining possible evolutions, and planning our responses to it. Futurism is a discipline at the cross-roads between science, politics and art. Futurists watch trends to predict what is coming. They see the present world as a window on possible futures.  Futuring is about predicting, anticipating but also dreaming. 

'The goal of futuring is not to predict the future, but to improve it', said Edward Cornish, one of the founding fathers of futurism and editor of the Futurist Magazine (Cornish, 2004, p. 65). That is exactly what Futuring the Rural is about. In this blog, we try to imagine possible futures for the rural in North-Western Europe, a rural that is specific for this part of the world, and experiences specific evolutions. It is becoming an ever more diverse, multilayered and complex reality. Incorporating a multiplicity of perspectives and dimensions in our analyses and dreams, we aim to envision a better, more integrated, more resilient, more sustainable rural. 




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