Why the World Needs Futures Studies: A Social and Methodological Challeng

Abstract

This work aims to focus on the absolute need that the world has today of Futures Studies. Thanks to this discipline’s historical and methodological specificities in human sciences’ context, Futures Studies can help humankind to manage the critical issues that are threatening it. The topic will be discussed through an exclusively theoretical approach, also describing the Italian contribution to Futures Studies: e.g., Eleonora Barbieri Masini’s work, or Aurelio Peccei’s, who (as early as the 1960s) was among the first to emphasize (in a complex approach) the risks the Earth would run. Nowadays, the delay in the actions that could have been taken many years ago places the world in front of previously unthinkable scenarios. New migrations caused by climate changes, possible criticalities due to the lack of demographic balance in the world population, our own survival as a living species at risk. In this sense, the new challenges that Futures Studies have to face are both socio-cultural and (in a particular approach) methodological. In the present times, many situations at the international level seem to have reached their limits. There is very little time to eventually refine (or change) the tools both of analysis and problem solving. As Aurelio Peccei pointed out in his time, phenomena (and problems) interact with each other in a very complex way. So, Futures Studies can help in the search for a possible solution by giving their particular multidisciplinary and overall look. Keywords: Futures Studies, Italian contribution, world criticalities, methodological issues