Eleonora Barbieri Masini

• Pontifical Gregorian University

This article looks at the relationships between generations in terms of the future. It will consider the importance of education for the future and the specific importance of childhood education. The intention is also to determine the extent to which younger generations and also young futurists can teach older ones, and therefore present generation...

Since his early professional life, Wendell Bell has sought to understand societies in terms of their changes by identifying the connections between sociology and futures studies. His aim, in my view, has been to use his highly developed intellectual capacity to search for indications of alternative futures, and his writings make a crucial contribut...

Migration at present produces, and will in the future, the encounter of populations belonging to cultures more diverse than ever before. Hence we are moving towards multicultural societies in different parts of the world. The article focuses on Europe and multicultural societies, as well as on the possibility of projects for intercultural societies...

The need to explain the concepts and terms used in Futures Studies, as in other sciences, has existed for a long time. But the necessity to do so has increased since the Second World War and is clearly important in recent debates among different groups involved in the field. This article traces the historical timeline of some of these terms in rela...

A key futures issue is the ability of developing countries to meet the increasing demand for qualified people with the skills necessary to use the emerging and increasingly sophisticated new technologies. Following a review of IT in higher education, data are presented on human resources in the developing countries, and the role of international pr...

The article looks at futures studies from the point of view of the author who has spent over 30 years in the field, with special reference to the World Futures Studies Federation. It suggests that visions are essential for conducting futures studies and education in futures studies is vital for preparing future oriented new generations. The author...

Challenges coming from futures studies to other disciplines because of the rapidity and inter-relatedness of changes for which no discipline on its own can face the different correlated and global challenges, will be examined mainly in relation to social sciences. social sciences on the other hand reflect the need to overcome fragmentation within e...

This article describes the introduction of futures studies to Italy and especially the contribution of Aurelio Peccei, the founder of the Club of Rome and an inspiration behind The limits to growth. To set the scene, the author shows how Italian futures studies absorbed technocratic and visionary ideas from prospective studies in France, particular...

Second Thoughts is an attempt to stimulate the collective memory of futures studies (FS) and to enable us to reflect on the meaning of quality in relation to earlier work. Have standards improved? If so, in what ways? What earlier ideas succeeded or failed? Which writings have stood the test of time? What important areas remain to be tackled? This...

The possibilities of rapprochement between art and science are explored in the present and future world. This can be effected in part through the recovery of the contributions made by nonwestern cultures to art and science. There is no one specifically western path of scientific development: history has seen many “aborted discoveries” whose potenti...

Traducción de: La previsione umana e sociale "Este libro tiene la intención de servir de introducción a los principios básicos de la prospectiva, los principales estudios realizados y los hallazgos reportados."