The future workshop is a futures technique developed by Robert Jungk, Ruediger Lutz and Norbert R. Muellert in the 1970s. It enables a group of people to develop new ideas or solutions of social problems. A future workshop is particularly suitable for participants who have little experience with processes of creative decision making, for example

child A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...

ren or

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

. However it is a useful method for any kind of complex problem that requires many stakeholders' involvement. The future workshop method requires an intensive preparation and support by trained moderators. It is used in

spatial planning Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the th ...

to involve citizens in the planning process, in software engineering to create a common vision of the future, and in health care to solve complex and multifaceted problems. The method is similar to

Open Space Technology Open Space Technology (OST) is a method for organizing and running a meeting or multi-day conference, where participants have been invited in order to focus on a specific, important task or purpose. In contrast with pre-planned conferences where ...

, Future Search, BarCamp or

Unconference An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid hierarchical aspects of a conventional conference, such as sponsored presentations and top ...

s. Future workshop may also be used as a kind of

action research Action research is a philosophy and methodology of research generally applied in the social sciences. It seeks transformative change through the simultaneous process of taking action and doing research, which are linked together by critical refl ...

method.Åkerblom, Petter. 2005. "Capacity Building for School Gardening: A Swedish Case Study." ''Canadian Journal of Environmental Education'', 10, Spring 2005
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Phases

# Preparation phase: The method, its rules and the scheduled course of the workshop (in accordance with the participants) is introduced. # Critique phase: The problem is investigated critically and thoroughly. First of all, a visualised brainstorming is performed and a general and critical question concerning the problem is framed. # Fantasy or visionary phase: All participants try to work out a vision of the future, to draw a picture of future possibilities. # Implementation phase: The ideas found are checked and evaluated with regard to their practicability. Discussions are related to the first step in order to achieve the vision.

References

General

* Jungk, Robert, Müllert, Norbert (1987): Future workshops: How to Create Desirable Futures. London, England, Institute for Social Inventions * Robert Jungk, Norbert R. Müllert: ''Zukunftswerkstätten. Mit Phantasie gegen Routine und Resignation.'' München 1989 (Erstveröffentlichung 1981) * Beate Kuhnt, Norbert R. Müllert: ''Moderationsfibel - Zukunftswerkstätten verstehen, anleiten, einsetzen.'' Neu-Ulm 2004 (Neuauflage) * Olaf-Axel Burow & Marina Neumann-Schönwetter (Hrsg.): ''Zukunftswerkstatt in Schule und Unterricht.'' Hamburg: Bergmann & Helbig 1997. (2. Auflage) * Petra Eickhoff, Stephan G. Geffers: ''Power of Imagination Studio - A Further Development of the Future Workshop Concept'', chapter 26 in Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, Steven Cady (ed.): ''The Change Handbook - The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems - 2nd edition'', San Francisco 2006

Notes

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External links

Heino Apel: The Future Workshop

urn:nbn:de:hebis:34-1507 Heiko Rüppel: Zukunftswerkstatt-online

"Workshop Methods" (section on "The Future Workshop")

The Danish Board of Technology ''The Danish Board of Technology Foundation'' is engaged in tasks and making contributions to public challenges calling for technology, knowledge, values and actions to be taken in all spheres of society. They work in such areas as IT, genetic eng ...

(accessed 10 March 2014) Meetings Social science methodology Futures techniques