Continuous Transformation and Neo-Carbon Energy Scenarios

This report describes the process and results of Futures Clinique held 22nd May 2015 at Aalto University. At the Futures Clinique − titled Creatively Sustainable Built Environment in Neo-Carbon Energy Worlds − students of Continuous Transformation Course elaborated four tentative scenarios of an on-going Tekes-funded project called Neo-Carbon Energy. The goal of the research project is to explore futures based on renewable energy system. The report begins by describing the method, project, and the theoretical framework. This is followed by the description of the process and results of the Futures Clinique. The nature of change and transformation is also discussed. Working in four groups, the participants focused on a chosen scenario through a multi-staged process. As the report is given to the participants for feedback as well as for further discussion and development, comments on the results are also presented. The conclusive chapter presents observations on transformation and futures learning

Designing for value sensitive service in the public sector

Human values are reflected in every design artefact, yet values remain implicit in most design processes. In the last few decades, Value Sensitive Design (VSD) has been developed as an approach to technology design that formally addresses values in the design process in order to achieve ethical outcomes. Use cases of VSD mainly focus on product design, however cases of VSD applied to services and to design for public sector are emergent, such as in design of service robots (van Wynsberghe, 2016) and for health care (Yoo, 2018a). The high requirements for social benefit to be produced by design for public sector, and the fundamentally interactive nature of services, make public sector service design an excellent candidate for more extensive application of VSD to achieve ethical, beneficial public service outcomes. The objective of this thesis is therefore to explore the possibilities of combining approaches of VSD and Design for Service in the context of public services. To do so, research into service design for prisoner rehabilitation services, referred to as client development services, was conducted with Rikosseuraamuslaitos (RISE), the Criminal Sanctions Agency of Finland. To conduct this exploration, literature from the fields of design, service science, sociology, and psychology, as well as primary documents from RISE were reviewed. With the help of a translator, RISE client development staff from multiple organizational levels were interviewed using a value-oriented semistructured interview method (n=10), and RISE staff were engaged in ongoing conversation and reflection throughout the project. Mapping processes were used for both data collection and analysis. Reflexive methodology, a qualitative approach emphasizing reflection on interpretation, informed the research and analysis design of the thesis. Research findings indicate that a key challenge to designing public services with values is the complexity of multi-layered value systems at play in both the public sector and in service ecosystems. This thesis therefore applies a Design for Service approach as a framework to address such complexity, in particular the notion of using values to create service ecosystem conditions as opposed to designing specific service paths. In addition, the service science concept of value co-creation, combined with psychology research on values, offers a model of how values operate in service ecosystems to influence benefit co-creation. Theories of human values are compared to understand values as a material of design, and Care Ethics supply a normative ethical framework to the application of VSD, addressing two common criticisms of the VSD approach. These findings are applied to current service development for the new Hämeenlinna women’s prison to uncover (1) personal values are used extensively by RISE staff in planning and delivering rehabilitation services, but their use is almost entirely implicit and informal; (2) organizational values are explicitly stated but their use is limited; (3) values held among staff vary widely and affect their participation in service delivery, both positively and negatively; (4) RISE managers see potential benefit in addressing value conflicts as a way to support alignment of service quality, which they believe will also contribute to RISE’s ongoing organizational mindset shift from punishment to rehabilitation. Based on these findings, this thesis proposes a service ecosystem model for RISE that (1) makes visible the values implicated in the system; (2) addresses conflicting values through mapping; and (3) creates a set of guiding principles that make values actionable in prison services. Implementation is proposed in the experimental context of the new Hämeenlinna women’s prison, through a set of values mapping tools designed for RISE to use in training workshops with prison officers. The aims of this thesis are to provide insight into how Value Sensitive Design methods, applied through a Design for Service approach, can be used to daylight and resolve value conflicts that inhibit benefit creation in service ecosystems, and how attending to values in service design and delivery can support organizational transformation

Continuous Transformation and Neo-Carbon Energy Scenarios

This report describes the process and results of Futures Clinique held 22nd May 2015 at Aalto University. At the Futures Clinique &minus; titled Creatively Sustainable Built Environment in Neo-Carbon Energy Worlds &minus; students of Continuous Transformation Course elaborated four tentative scenarios of an on-going Tekes-funded project called Neo-Carbon Energy. The goal of the research project is to explore futures based on renewable energy system. The report begins by describing the method, project, and the theoretical framework. This is followed by the description of the process and results of the Futures Clinique. The nature of change and transformation is also discussed. Working in four groups, the participants focused on a chosen scenario through a multi-staged process. As the report is given to the participants for feedback as well as for further discussion and development, comments on the results are also presented. The conclusive chapter presents observations on transformation and futures learning.</p

Entangling and Elevating Creativity and Criticality in Participatory Futuring Engagements

This article proposes that creativity and criticality not only can but should be entangled and elevated in participatory futuring engagements. Selected concepts from creativity theory and critical futures studies are applied to develop a set of futuring games through action research. We claim that participatory processes designed to entangle and elevate creativity and criticality produce more novel and varied ideas that better fit the purposes of futures studies. This article offers four arguments for combining creativity and criticality in participatory futuring engagements. First, due to complexity and uncertainty, the future is ultimately unknowable and requires tools to probe the unknown. Second, novelty is difficult to achieve in practice while creativity and criticality can help overcome these challenges. Third, discontinuities are the main sources of futures that are most radically different from the present and will have the biggest impact. Fourth, creativity and criticality support the rigorous imagining required for exploring and discovering new possible futures. This article analyzes three experimentations in entangling and elevating creativity and criticality in game-based futuring, stemming from Causal Layered Analysis. Based on these examples, we demonstrate that creativity and criticality, when combined, help people break through the limitations of current understanding, reveal approaching tipping points, and find the “unvisited cavities” through rhizomatic knowledge creation. However, there remain challenges in evaluating how well various participatory designs support creativity and criticality in practice. Context-sensitive evaluation tools and open sharing of outcomes are needed to develop participation design principles capable of supporting creativity and criticality in participatory futuring.</p

CLA GAME REPORT : Causal Layered Analysis Game on Neo-Carbon Energy Scenarios

This report describes the process and results of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) game session held on 11 June 2015 in the International Conference of “Futures Studies Tackling Wicked Problems”, organized by Finland Futures Research Centre in Turku. CLA is a qualitative method developed by Sohail Inayatullah. It enables a deeper investigation of alternative futures through an analysis done through four different layers; litany, system, worldview and myth/metaphor. The method functioned as the theoretical framework for the experimental game session conducted during the conference. The aim of the CLA game was to elaborate on and experiment with four transformational scenarios being developed by Finland Futures Research Centre for an ongoing Neo-Carbon Energy project. The tentative scenarios were constructed in the futures-orientated part of the project “Neo-Carbon Enabling Neo-Growth Society – Transformative Scenarios 2050”

FUTURES LITERACY LAB FOR EDUCATION : Imagining Complex Futures of Human Settlements at Finland Futures Academy Summer School 2017

This report presents an instance of Futures Literacy Laboratory (FLL) held for the Finland Futures Academy Summer School on the topic of “complex futures of human settlement in 2050” held in June 2017 at University of Turku. The Futures Literacy Laboratory approach was developed by Riel Miller and UNESCO through a series of instances held around the world starting in 2012. In essence, an FLL aims at increasing futures literacy by increasing awareness of anticipatory assumptions and ‘how the future is used’ in the present. This report describes the theoretical background, pedagogical design, practical implementation, and outcomes of this Summer 2017 FLL. It concludes with lessons learns and suggestions for future applications of FLL

Precursors to a 'Good’ Bioeconomy in 2125 : Making Sense of Bioeconomy & Justice Horizons. First Foresight Report of the BioEcoJust Project

The Bioeconomy today is a field full of promise, brimming with potentially transformative solutions, and developments still only in their infancy. The aim of this report has been to convey the findings of the BioEcoJust foresight research to date, and especially to highlight the core critical thinking involved in approaching the future of the bioeconomy for the next 100 years. The BioEconomy and Justice (BioEcoJust) is funded by the Academy of Finland BioFuture 2025 programme and aims to develop a future-oriented ethical and justice framework useful in assessing long-term bioeconomy developments. The consortium has two research teams, representing Practical Philosophy (Aalto University) and Futures Studies (University of Turku)

New Great Electrification as Cultural Transformation for Post-Oil Era – Everybody on Board!

The point of discussing renewable energy technologies in the context of cultural transformation is to highlight culture as a game changer and catalyst for change. Too often only economic, technological and political dimensions are taken as key drivers for change. This working paper presents the results of the workshop session “New great electrification as Cultural Transformation for post-oil era – Everybody on board!” that was organised as a Special Millennium Project Workshop in Tampere June 14, 2018, within the conference “Energizing Futures – Sustainable Development and Energy in Transition”. In his keynote speech Jerome Glenn opened up vistas for how it is widely understood that the applications of artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) to all elements of the industrial production processes and service industries (The Fourth Industrial Revolution) will have a great impact on energy, employment, and the economy. However, it is less well understood that the applications of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and synergies among next technologies will generate far more profound changes than ANI and could create the Self-Actualization Economy and Culture. The starting point for the workshop was to explore futures of an economy, based on a new, entirely renewable energy based energy system in a peer-to-peer society 2050. The key question addressed was how to organise a circular economy with renewable energy and peer-to-peer principles? Five moderated small groups tackled this issue as follows. One group chose mobility and equality as their special focus and discussed how they could be achieved in the envisioned society. They came up with the entity of “Mobility, equality, and distributing aspirational dreams as personal simulations”. The second group chose as their topic the nexus of skills, education-to-employment, and inequalities, asking what kinds of education and skills are needed to achieve such a society, overcome national and global inequalities, and what kinds of new jobs will be available in that kind of a society? They crystallized their reflexions to “Peer-to-peer learning – aided by robotisation and AI or not?” The third group selected health as their focal issue, especially the connection between food and health. They questioned the concepts of control, and what is natural/artificial and envisioned “Farewell to hospitals: decentralised, multi-technology health care”. The fourth group concentrated on new risks for individual members of such a society. They identified a number of compelling competences for individuals to make the most of a peer-to-peer environment. They envisioned their results into “AI-Enabled Empathy Exchange”. The fifth group took leisure as their topic and discussed how leisure is organised in the envisioned society and what the tools are that constitute the sphere of leisure. They created a vision of “Self-Actualization for leisure (and work) in virtual reality”.</p