Conversations on
the Future We Want:
Gaming
launched a job call and plan to hire both international and local faculty to deliver
futures courses in Qazaq, Russian, and English languages starting in September
2019. Instead of a formal vision and mission statement, we employ three values
to set out our intentions. First, curiosity lies at the heart of futures work. We seek
to embody this defining characteristic in all that we do by staging provocations
that simultaneously instigate and inspire. Second, commensality is typically de-
fined as “sharing a table” and centers on how relationships and partnerships are
formed and maintained. We want to build lasting, fruitful, and mutually-beneficial
connections with communities, citizens, and colleagues. In principle as well as
practice, QRIFS aims to be as collaborative as possible. Third, contextuality keeps
us questioning our own positionality and how we can ethically operate with close
attentiveness toward the places and peoples who engage with our work.
Since language situates context, QRIFS will focus on making resources available
in local languages (Qazaq and Russian), and, as with the university, we will release
content in three languages: Qazaq, Russian, and English. Local perspectives are
very much at the forefront of our thinking and subsequent practice. Our team is
currently developing projects on Qazaq identity and consumer culture, Muslim
Futures in Central Asia, and postcards from the future(s) of Qazaqstan. We very
much want to become an integral part of the World Futures Studies Federation
(WFSF) community and plan to send a delegation to Mexico City for the WFSF
XXIII World Conference. We will certainly keep everyone updated on our journey.
If you are in the neighborhood, want to visit Almaty, or have as strong desire to
see dynamic change unfold firsthand, you are cordially invited to come and share
a table with us. Surf’s up!
Dr. John A. Sweeney
Director, QRIFS
Assistant Professor of Futures and Foresight, Narxoz Business School
62 HF |
April 2019
An Interview with Dana Klisanin, Ph.D.
by Dr. Claire Nelson
T
he United Nation’s Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 as the
universal call to action to end poverty and hunger,
protect the planet and ensure inclusion, peace
and prosperity for all by 2030. However, without
active individual involvement, Agenda 2030 is not
capable of delivering wide scale impact. Unders-
tanding of the SDGs and actions towards achie-
ving them should be integrated in everyday lives
of ordinary people. We need ways to reach people
in ways that speak to them and offer content in a
form that allows them to engage.
In this interview we hear from DANA KLISANIN, a
WFSF Board member, psychologist and futurist
who has designed a game that aims to educate
and empower youth around the SDGs. Dana has
formed partnerships with over a dozen nonprofit
organizations and nongovernmental organiza-
HF | Human Futures 63