This alternative futures project is a collaborative effort involving policy advocates, community members, and partners from 1000 Friends of Oregon with futurists and creatives at Institute for the Future. It presents a set of scenarios to catalyze strategic conversations to address inter-connected challenges such as climate-driven migration, environmental instability, affordable housing, and rural economic development. These scenarios are not predictions or preferences, but thought-provoking explorations of what might be. They draw from present-day trends and uncertainties, inviting us to reflect on the seeds of change already sown. By imagining alternative futures, we can critically examine the potential outcomes of our actions today and build resilience for tomorrow.
Below, download the Horizon Scan and written Four Alternative Future Scenarios for the full custom foresight research.
Four Alternative Futures: Building Resilience through Foresight
The videos explore four possible futures for 2035:
- A Growth Future: INSATIABLE—A future driven by the desire for continued economic growth, even at the expense of equality and sustainability.
- A Collapse Future: SCRATCH—A future ravaged by climate, economic disparities, and breakdown of core systems.
- A Constraint Future: PRUNING—A future driven by difficult choices and the acceptance of fewer individual freedoms for the benefit of all.
- A Transformation Future: LIMINAL—A future accelerated by technological breakthroughs and a re-definition of reality.
None of these futures will come to pass exactly as they are depicted. None of them are predictions or preferences. However, the seeds of all of these possibilities and more exist in the present. Alternative futures help us see the contours of diverse trajectories of change, and offer the chance to think critically about the consequences of our choices today.
