Sohail Inayatullah is a Pakistani-born Australian academic,

futures studies Futures studies, futures research or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social and technological advancement, and other environmental trends, often for the purpose of exploring how people will live and wor ...

researcher and a professor at the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies at Tamkang University in

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Biography

Born in 1958 in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

, Pakistan, to a father who worked as a researcher for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and a

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

mother, he grew up in numerous countries including the United States, Switzerland and Malaysia. His main influences include James Dator,

Johan Galtung Johan Vincent Galtung (24 October 1930 – 17 February 2024) was a Norwegian sociologist and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He was the main founder of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in 1959 an ...

, William Irwin Thompson and in particular P. R. Sarkar.

Academic contributions

Inayatullah is most famous for introducing and pioneering the futures technique of

causal layered analysis Causal layered analysis (CLA) is a future research theory that integrates various epistemic modes, creates spaces for alternative futures, and consists of four layers: litany, social, and structural, worldview, and myth/metaphor. The method was cr ...

, that uses a four-layered approach to bring about transformative change. He introduced the idea in a widely cited paper for ''Futures''. He also edited and wrote the introductory chapter for the Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) Reader. He has described the idea for a popular audience in an article for ''The Futurist'' and a TEDx talk. Inayatullah's work on CLA was examined in a book by Jose W. Ramos in 2003. He also invented the method known as, the Futures Triangle, the Integrated Scenario Method, and with Ivana Milojevic, the Change Progression Scenario Method.

Academic positions

In addition to his role at Tamkang University, Inayatullah is the UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies at the Sejahtera Centre for Sustainability and Humanity, IIUM, Malaysia From 2016 to 2021, he was the UNESCO Chair in Futures Studies at USIM, Malaysia. He was also an adjunct professor at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism,

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, Sydney, from 2011 to 2014 and adjunct professor at the

University of the Sunshine Coast The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC; formerly abbreviated as USC until 2022) is a public university based on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. After opening with 524 students in 1996 as the Sunshine Coast University College, it ...

(Faculty of Social Sciences and the Arts) from 2001 to 2020.

Role in journals and web publications

Inayatullah is co-editor (along with Jose Ramos, Anisah Abdullah, and Kuo-Hua Chen) of the ''

Journal of Futures Studies The ''Journal of Futures Studies'' (JFS) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the discipline of futures studies. It is published by Tamkang University Press on behalf of the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies at Tamkang Universit ...

'', one of the top journals in

. He is on the editorial boards of '' Futures'', Journal of Foresight and Thought Leadership, World Futures, Futures and Foresight Science, World Futures Review and ''foresight''. Inayatullah is also the co-founder of educational think tank Metafuture.org along with Dr. Ivana Milojević.

Other affiliations

Inayatullah is a member of the World Future Society and blogs at the

website. He is also a Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation. He has also voiced his support for the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reform in the United Nations.

References

External links

Metafuture: Futures Studies
by Sohail Inayatullah and Ivana Milojević
Futures Studies: Theories and Methods

Sohail Inayatullah's blog
World Future Society (archived in 2016) {{DEFAULTSORT:Inayatullah, Sohail Futurologists Pakistani emigrants to Australia Academics from Lahore Australian people of Punjabi descent Academic staff of the University of the Sunshine Coast Academic staff of Macquarie University Academic staff of Tamkang University Australian expatriates in Taiwan Living people Australian academics of Pakistani descent 1958 births University of Hawaiʻi alumni