The creation of dystopias as an alternative for imagining and materializing a university of the future

Abstract

Future studies face several problems in terms of desirable scenarios, the misuse of probabilities and tools that do not adequately manage uncertainty. To address this, it is important to privilege procedures that enable the identification of breaking points and black swans, such as disciplines that prioritize the description of dystopias as a catalyst for future actions. In order to verify whether this is possible, this paper analyzes the use of dystopias as a means to better reflect about the future, to then establish whether Science Fiction and Speculative Design enable a better description of these possible dystopias, thereby facilitating the identification of a dystopic future for a university. To this end, we describe a case study that enabled imagining and materializing a university in 2035 using a logic that is totally dystopic. The results obtained show that Science Fiction and Speculative Design are capable of producing dystopic inputs that help warn against future risks and threats. From the case study we can conclude that a dystopic process enables the identification of a wide range of actions and provides a vision of the future. In this sense, a non-traditional process that privileges the construction of dystopias may be useful for planning an organization’s future.