Marcus Bussey

University of the Sunshine Coast | USC · School of Social Sciences/Sustainability Research Centre

The Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) and the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC), in south-east Queensland Australia, have undertaken a collaborative research project to investigate multi-modal approaches to community engagement. This project posits that society is now operating and evolving in the context of postnormal times and seeks to test the n...

This paper offers a personal reflection on the work of eminent futurist Richard Slaughter. Key aspects of Slaughter’s work, his method and approach, his aspirations and his central theme of precarity and ‘What Next?’ are detailed. The author also provides two examples of the direct influence of Slaughter’s work on his own.

In the face of uncertainty and rapid change, how governments at all scales remain valued by society will depend on their ability to connect meaningfully, respond to challenges collaboratively, and co-design approaches with the community. However, tensions exist between the legislative obligations of local government organisations and meeting the ra...

The fundamental relatedness of all things has been on the radar of shaman and mystics for millennia, but it has only recently emerged as a significant element in academic thought and social action. This paper offers a world historical reading of this relational consciousness as a narrative of becoming that engages with the transmodern dimension map...

The future, fully emerging into Cosmic awareness, calls us simultaneously to reclaim our local and intimate environment. The world has become so wide open that we are lost within it. This leads to terror and violence as people panic and retreats into earlier fundamentalisms. Better a cage of dogma, the prophets say, than the wide open skies! To fin...

This chapter sets the scene for this edited book. Collectively we are presented with a gathering of thinkers and practitioners all working with unique understandings of the body, embodiment and transformative futures. Yet together we get a sense of unity around the insight that when we engage in expansive, disruptive, healing and anticipatory work...

Grace is a disturber of the peace. It can invade our lives in the most alarming ways. To begin to understand a phenomenology of grace is to begin to work with embodied practices that actively invite grace in. Such practices are called ‘grace-hacks’ in this chapter. The goal is to outline how grace invades our lives, how grace also changes our lives...

What does it mean to be an elite classical musician? Especially one working in the early music area. This conversation reflects on the balance of grace and grit in the working life of Australian violinist Aaron Brown. It explores his pushing the limits and the unusual relationship to time and tradition that is a feature of accessing and interpretin...

This book explores the place of the body and embodied practices in the production and experience of grace in order to generate transformative futures. The authors offer a range of phenomenologies in order to move the philosophical anchoring of phenomenology from an abstracted European tradition into more open and complex experiential sets of unders...

There is no singular future out there waiting for us. The future is a contested and creative space in which individuals, communities and even civilizations explore the creative possibilities available to them in their traditions, their imaginaries and their choices. This provocation outlines some key drivers in the area of climate change, marginali...

Critical spirituality suggests futures that resist the present and reach deep into the past to generate futures that resist definition, challenging us as both individuals and societies to be our best, do our best and dream our best. This calling rethinks humanism for a humanity liberated from definitions rooted in limits. This chapter explores the...

This chapter explores culture, and its possibilities and limits, in the light of Asia’s great potential for recovery in the twenty-first century. It is not a question of Asian ascendancy but of how that ascendancy will be expressed that lies at the heart of futures thinking for Asia. Asian futures, and the traditions that inform them, are first fra...

This chapter enacts a dialogue between the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) and the Indian social theorist and guru Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar (1922–1990). It is an attempt to test the creative possibilities generated through an intercivilisational dialogue. The dialogue seeks to explore the congruences and incompatibilities that such an en...

Anticipatory aesthetics is offered as a critical process of engagement, via a range of futures senses, with conditions that constrain neohumanist possibilities of the human and non-human actors resident to our planet. Its approach offers us an adventure into possibility via a reflection on aspects of the human ‘everyday’ we take for granted. We nav...

Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.

Futurists work with time, yet we rarely consider the full implications of what this means. It could equally be said that futurists work within time, navigating the cultures and ecologies of time that shape the worlds they seek to enable. The most interesting result of this way of looking at what futurists do, with and within time, is that it opens...

Anticipatory aesthetics extends the conceptual repertoire of the theory of anticipation. This chapter offers a theoretical rationale for the importance of anticipatory aesthetics in the work of foresight practitioners and theorists. It argues for a central place for the senses – both embodied and subtle – in anticipatory knowledge work. Key to this...

We live in strange times. We all know it. Some of us celebrate and play with the sense of vertigo being experienced whilst others tremble and attempt to limit the turbulence through various kinds of self-absorption. This contested space is very much alive and creative. Those choosing to play in this space are consciously seeking to realise preferre...

Communicating Futures Studies to graduates steeped in specialized disciplinary domains calls for a well-structured series of thought interventions. To achieve this considerable reflexivity is called for on the teacher’s part. This article looks at futures pedagogy and my personal “hidden curriculum.” These reflections hinge on the teaching of a cou...

This paper explores values in Higher Education. It suggests that values change is an important condition for the reorientation taking place in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Plasker's 100 Year Lifestyle is used as a context for this reflection and the value of service is offered and explored as a possible zone of 'value generalisation' that...

Reflection on the importance of 'love of place' (topophilia) to deepening sustainability consciousness.

Over 85% of Australia’s population resides within 50 kilometres of the coastline. Population projections indicate that the trend of coastal urbanisation is likely to continue, placing significant pressure on infrastructure, services, and ecological systems. The impacts on coastal communities from urbanisation will be exacerbated by the effects of c...

This paper seeks to explore the concept “sustainable culture” by exploring the metaphorical possibilities inherent to the toilet. It offers an analysis of the toilet as both a technology and a symbol of (Western/pure) culture via an application of CLA to the problem with (and promise of) shit. Following this the paper offers a set of possible futur...

This chapter offers a cultural and historical overview of the context in which humanity may evolve beyond the current environmental, social, economic and spiritual impasse that frames . the issues of food security and food sovereignty. It draws on historical research and futures thinking to expand on the discourse of distributive justice and sugges...

It is argued in this paper that the intimate nature of language, as well as the intimacy of the senses, form important elements in the theory and practice of futures. Such elements tend to be sidelined as futurists pragmatically privilege the use of tools and techniques over the less tangible assets of relating, sensing and intuiting. Of interest i...

This paper argues that Causal Layered Analysis aka CLA is a method of the multiple that offers a process-theory of knowledge that facilitates new becomings and alternative futures. It makes the case that agency and social learning are enhanced through understanding human contexts as layered and dynamic. To do so it draws on the work of French philo...

The effectiveness of various adaptation options is dependent on the capacity to plan, design and implement them. Understanding the determinants of adaptive capacity is, therefore, crucial for effective responses to climate change. This paper offers an assessment of adaptive capacity across a range of sectors in South East Queensland, Australia. The...

The quest for agency lies at the heart of futures work. Vuokko Jarva in her lead article for this number suggests that a clearer conception and application of narrative futures may well offer practitioners a bridge between the inner work of futures that seeks to problematize all certainties and the 'realities' such certainties uphold and the necess...

Purpose – This article seeks to reflect on the role of key concepts in foresight and futures work. The goal is to explore a set of concepts and link them to the effects they have in the world of foresight practice. It is argued that concepts order foresight practice and that though each foresight context and practitioner is unique, concepts bring a...

Causal layered analysis (CLA) is a key tool for Deep Futures approach, which is seen by numerous experts as a prospective trend in evolution of Foresight studies. It reveals hidden basic prerequisites for actual incidents thus providing an information basis for the making efficient decisions. The paper considers the nature, features and possibiliti...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to challenge the assumption that liberal education as we understand it today, is alive and well in our institutions of higher education. Design/methodology/approach – This article is a reflective essay Findings – The spirit of liberal education is alive and well but has largely fled the university and taken...

As I reflect on this point and the question of liberal education and the absence of women and voices from the global South and the Rest (as opposed to the West) in this special issue, I see this omission of gender and race as indicative of the problem for legitimacy in higher education that liberal education faces today. A call for papers usually e...

This article assesses foundational concepts in foresight and futures studies. It uses terms matching definitions supplied by other scholars. It argues that certain concepts underly the practice of foresight; although each foresight context and practitioner are unique, they come together under these concepts and give coherence to foresight and futur...

In this piece-meal essay I wish to make a case for futurist as bridge builder. By this I mean that the futurist enables those in contexts to begin to move in directions that are optimal visà- vis the goals of their organisation or community. The construction of such pathways, as bridges, to the future is a work of hands, heads and hearts and thus r...

In coastal management under climatic pressures, the final aim of vulnerability assessments, system thinking or scenario planning exercises is to inform the identification of the most appropriate adaptation options for communities under risk of coastal hazards and climate change. In this paper we show how we combined these techniques for coastal set...

It is easy to feel impatient with the pace of change when it comes to developing truly sustainable culture yet things are happening all over the world to lay the ground work, create the architecture and language of sustainability as a cultural reality. In Weaving Pedagogies of Possibility the authors seek to leverage from such developments. In this...

This paper explores how the history–futures interface can inform a set of concrete adaptation options to climate change for stakeholders in South East Queensland, Australia. It is based on research undertaken as part of the Commonwealth funded South East Queensland Climate Adaptation Research Initiative (SEQ-CARI) that profiled 33 historical case s...

The South East Queensland (SEQ) coast is exposed to coastal hazards that are likely to be exacerbated in the future. Rising sea levels, in combination with extreme meteorological events such as tropical cyclones and east coast lows, will increase the exposure to extreme water levels in open coastlines and transitional environments; at the same time...

This paper reflects on the report " Societal Responses to Significant Change: An Historical Analysis " an early deliverable in the Australian Government funded South East Queensland Climate Adaptation Research Initiative (SEQCARI). Societal Responses to Significant Change reviewed 33 case studies developed by 12 researchers that illustrate the rang...

This paper explores microvita theory and its relevance to information science. There are two parts to this, the first is theoretical and outlines microvita theory as an epistemological product of the Tantric theory of consciousness and mind. The civilizational value of such a theory is contextualized via a consideration of Gilles Deleuze's concept...

This paper investigates how work integrated learning (WIL) can be re-imagined/re-enacted as collaborative playgrounds of networks. To do this we first establish the working context for these reflections by exploring fragments of biography and the immediate catalyst which was a recent seminar held over 5 days, beginning in the rural Swedish town of...

The South East Queensland (SEQ) coast is exposed to coastal hazards that are likely to be exacerbated in the future. Rising sea levels, in combination with extreme meteorological events such as tropical cyclones and east coast lows, will increase the exposure to extreme water levels in open coastlines and transitional environments; at the same time...

This article questions the use of the term integral. It argues that although the use is well intentioned it draws its energy from the geophilosophical drive of the Western project. This project is imperialist in nature and bases its power on its ability to define. So although IF claims to be inclusive it actually establishes a self-referential dial...

Discussion of climate change adaptation is gaining increased prominence in sustainability policy and the academic literature. A key factor in the selection of climate adaptation initiatives is the understanding of vulnerability. However, past approaches to understanding climate change vulnerability have largely focused on assessments of exposure (e...

Purpose This paper offers six shamanic futures concepts to augment Inayatullah's six pillars, questions and concepts of futures studies. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Ashis Nandy's use of the shaman as a futures category that posits alterity and the unknowable as the dissenting component of futures studies, six concepts (geophilosophy, rh...

This paper suggests that CLA functions as a method of the between. It is able to do this because it is a hinge concept that allows for structure to be unpacked via method, and also rethought and engaged via a process oriented theory of knowledge. As an organising principle it allows curriculum to be rethought as an agency-structure dialogue that do...

David Christian's Maps of Time is taken as a point of reference to explore the temporal strategies used in world history to navigate what Christian calls 'Big History'. A participatory and performa- tive model of meaning making is proposed that utilizes multiple temporal strategies simultaneously. Evolutionary theory is ex- plored as a narrative de...

25 -40 As a musician I often find myself thinking about society, culture, history and education via analogies with music. I know there are certain limitations in doing so: the most obvious for a post structuralist being that music imposes an artificial order on any moment that is read 'musically'; while, for instance, a structuralist might express...

There are two Australias today. It is not easy to pinpoint when this all started but everyone saw the writing on the wall for the federal government when the water crisis of 2012 hit. This was an issue they had bungled from the beginning and if not for the energy and skill of local communities and indigenous-green groups the crisis could have been...

This paper proposes a model for thinking about public policy that is holistic and inclusive. Using a ‘temporal lens’ it is argued that much that is taken for granted about modernity and progress is rooted in temporal structures that privilege certain social processes and interest groups. For community to be engaged in deliberative policy that is re...

University of the Sunshine Coast Australia "Color is neutral; it is the mind that gives it meaning." 1 "Some want to understand too much and too quickly; they have explanations for everything. Others refuse to understand; they offer only cheap mystification. The only way forward lies in investigating the space between these two options." 2 This pap...

The human dynamism implied by the concept of Thrival is of particular concern to futurists engaged in exploring our human potential. This potential is not simply a matter of being able to chart a course and realise it; it is the ability to engage the multidimensional facets of out humanness in order to create maps to preferable futures that retain...

This paper offers an analysis of the concepts access and equity using CLA to highlight the complexity of the discourse and the nature of the contested conceptual space. An historical context is used to situate the dis- course and place the tension between open ended and closed interpretations of these terms in their historical- cultural context. Th...

The State of Queensland, Department of Families, April 2003. Copyright protects this publication. Permission is given for the copying of this document for use in the Queensland Government and as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968. Other reproduction by whatever means is prohibited without the prior written permission of the Departmen...

Each time a new book appears on my desk I get excited because I love words and ideas. And each time I start to read, I wonder what is going to be ‘new’ about this text: what will it add to my intellectual, emotional and spiritual gene pool? Well I picked up David Hicks’ new book, Lessons for the Future: The missing dimension in education, with such...

This paper argues that for futures studies (FS) to have a future that is relevant to current shifts in meaning and consciousness, then it must incorporate into its methods and practices a sense of mystery founded on a critically spiritual sensibility. Critical spirituality redefines rationality and empiricism by including within their framework bot...

In the face of the contemporary university's failure to escape from economic rationality and therefore create environments conducive to positive futures an alternative model of university is proposed. This is based on an episteme rooted in Tantra, a world view that allows for a multi-layering of discourse to occur in order to greatly extend the uni...