President’s
LETTER
Humankind
2050
Program
Dear members,
I am happy to present the second issue of our Magazine, Human Futures. Due to the
change of Board, the Presidency and our conference HUMANKIND2050, which was
arranged 7-9th of June 2017, the issue appears a bit later than initially planned. We
hope, however, that the articles and the perspectives within this issue appeal to your
interest and thoughts. The issue is specially dedicated to our HUMANKIND2050
conference, but does also have other contributions.
“
Together we envisioned,
designed and worked
towards creating
peaceful, ecological and
equitable futures for
humankind for the next
fifty years and beyond.”
Tuesday, June 6th
Preconference Workshops
HUMANKIND2050
In June 2017, it was fifty years since a handful of forward-thinking individuals called
the ‘Mankind 2000’ meeting in Oslo, Norway. Johan Galtung, Robert Jungk and
several other of our well-known members over the years, were among them. That
meeting was a vital step in laying the foundations of the World Futures Studies
Federation. But, it was also much more than that. Wednesday, June 7th
Welcome Speeches
Keynote presentation of Jennifer Gidley
Retrospect of former President WFSF, Johan Galtung
Mankind 2000 contributed to a comprehensive attention toward long-term thinking
and put futures research on the global map. In addition it was a catalyst in shifting
the idea of THE one and only future that could be predicted, to the quantum notion
of multiple possible futures that we can create. This was the beginning of pluralistic
approaches to Futures Studies, and to what we sometimes call “alternative futures”.
The Mankind 2000 conference in Oslo 1967 also started a process of geographic
diversification within the field of Futures Studies. Thursday, June 8th
Plenary session 1
Plenary open conversation
Plenary session 2
Plenary session 3
Excursion – Folgefonna glacier – Norwegian Museum of Hydro Power &
Industry
With that in mind, we invited you to join us at the Hardanger Academy in the fjord
region of Jondal, Norway to celebrate fifty years of creating alternative futures.
The conference was a success, and the topics discussed during the three days
represented a broad specter of themes such as Peace in practice, Food Futures,
Sustainability, Climate and Agriculture, Urbanization, Gaming, Education of the
future, Emerging Technologies, and Ph