Future Design: a Practical Method to Develop Metacognitive Skills?
WARNING: DEEP DIVE INTO THE MIND AND SOME FREAK UTOPIAN CONTENT. YOU WILL HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Future Design
Future Design is a method developed around 2015 by Tatsuyoshi Saijo, a Japanese economist at Kochi University of Technology. Future Design fosters sustainable thinking by exploring how current decision-making can influence future generations. During Future Design sessions, individuals belonging to a specific community take on the role of members of an “imaginary future generation” and engage in designing strategies that can be adopted by the present living generation. The intervention often incorporates negotiation between the imaginary future generation and other participants who represent the perspective of the present generation (long-term planning vs. short-term rewards).
Seems like fun, isn’it?, but if you’re currently thinking of introducing a novel approach like Future Design, with its associated concept of “representatives of the future generation”, to the seriousness of a contemporary political system, be aware that it’s not a neutral initiative. Be ready for general expressions of mistrust, perplexity, or even denigrating remarks (“I don’t know about you, but I’m not into this freak utopian sh*…”).
