The key elements of any educational domain, including strategic foresight/futures studies can be grouped into:

1. Frameworks (or "Learning Paradigms", the philosophical models used to understand and teach a domain),
2. Theory/concepts.
3. Methods/practice, and
4. Knowledge/history and current data.

The last three of these, theory, methods, and knowledge, can be grouped together into disciplines or specialties. Our terminology becomes community-validated when we can find our way to shared frameworks, which doesn't happen easily, particularly in newly formed, complex, and politically-sensitive domains like futures.

Section I below features Foresight Education Frameworks (learning objectives) for methods and theory which are taught in various organizational, undergraduate, graduate, MS and PhD educational programs in foresight/futures studies around the world today. Each can be considered competing yet complementary ways to educate FS students.

Section II below gives examples of the more numerous Foresight Practice Frameworks (skills and procedures), a collection of formal ways people and organizations practice foresight on a particular topic.

Pick the framework that works best for you, whether in education or practice.
It's best to hold each one lightly in your studies and in your work, as each has its strengths and limitations.

Frameworks are listed in alpha order by generic name, or by name of implementing institution.


Section I. Foresight Education Frameworks (Learning Objectives)

Acceleration Studies Foundation Framework
Below are ASF's prescription for primary, secondary, and domain-specific foresight specialties (methods and theories) that should be covered in a comprehensive foresight/futures program. While a foresight practitioner or educator may be proficient in only a few of these, we propose an MS or PhD foresight/futures program should provide basic proficiency in all the primary specialties (the core curriculum of the field), and at least overview the secondary specialties. Electives and thesis topics should be possible in primary, secondary, and select other specialties.

Primary Foresight Specialties (24)	Secondary Foresight Specialties (25)
Alternative Futures Competitive Intelligence Critical (Hidden Motivations) Futures and CLA Development (Systemic) and Acceleration Studies Emerging Issues, Cross Impact and Pattern Analysis Emerging Technologies Analysis Ethnographic Futures Forecasting and Modeling/Simulation (basic) Foresight Frameworks and Foundations History and Analysis of Prediction Horizon Scanning and Weak Signals Images and Artifacts of the Future Personal Futures/ Foresight Development Prediction Markets Predictive Surveys/ Delphi Roadmapping Scenario Development and Backcasting Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning Strategy Games, Serious and War Games Systems Thinking Transhumanist/ Ethics of Emerging Tech Studies Trend Extrapolation and Learning Curves Visioning, Intuition, and Creativity Wildcards	Actuarial Science and Risk Assessment Anthropology and Culture Studies Cognitive and Positive Psychology Collaboration, Facilitation, and Peace/Conflict Studies Critical (Evaluative) and Evidence-Based Thinking Demographics and Sociology Ethics and Values Studies Evolution, Complexity and Systems Studies Forecasting and Modeling/Simulation (advanced) Futures, Sci-Fi, Utopian, and Dystopian Lit Studies Innovation and Entrepreneurship Studies Integral Studies and Thinking Investing and Finance (Long-Term) Leadership Studies and Organizational Development Library Sci, Data Mining, and Knowledge Management Long-Range and Urban Planning Marketing, Public Relations, and Consumer Behavior Political Science and Policy Studies Probabilistic (Statistical) Prediction Religious Studies (Future Beliefs) Security/Defense Studies and International Relations Science and Technology Studies and Technology Analysis Socially Responsible / Triple Bottom Line Management Strategic Planning, Decision Analysis/Support, Ops Rsrch Sustainability and Development (Economic) Studies
Other Foresight Specialties (40, a partial list)
Architecture | Astrobiology | Biological Sciences | Bioethics | Biotechnology | Business Administration | Chemical Sciences | Cliometrics | Computer Modeling and Simulation | Computer Science | Cybernetics | Disaster/ Catastrophic Risk Management | Economics and Econometrics | Education | Engineering | Evolutionary Biology | Game Theory | Gambling Studies | Generational Studies | Geography | History | History and Philosophy of Science and Technology | Information Science | Investing and Finance (Short-Term) | Library Science (general) | Management | Media and Communications | Mathematics | Operations Research | Philosophy | Physical Sciences | Psychology (general) | Psychographics | Statistics (general) | Technology Policy | Tourism | Urban Studies

Acceleration Studies Foundation - 3P's/Evo Devo Foresight Framework (for the Specialties Above)
These three foresight specialties (primary, secondary, and other) can also be classified as three fundamental foresight perspectives, using Roy Amara's 3P's foresight framework.

This perspective-driven framework groups specialties into whether they explore Possible futures (what could happen), Preferable futures (what we want) and Probable futures (what seems most likely, in spite of our personal preferences) futures. The 3P's framework can alternatively be called an Evo Devo foresight framework, as it divides foresight into "Evolutionary" (possible), "Developmental" (probable), and "Evo Devo" (preferable) futures. ASF classifies acceleration studies (systems of change that go measurably faster every year, such as IT productivity, information growth, nanotech performance in various domains) as a subset of development studies (probable, directional environmental change). Below are some additional terms that can be loosely associated with Amara's three basic foresight perspectives:

Possible Futures (evolution, innovation, experimentation, creativity, art, belief)
Preferable Futures (evo devo, management, values, laws, agendas, consensus, practice)
Probable Futures (development (of the predictable), sustainability (of projected system needs), discovery (of system rules), science)

Yellow

are primary FS specialties, where the futures community has historically had major responsibility for methodological development.

Yellow*

are also primary FS specialties, and potentially underdeveloped areas for new method and theory development in futures studies.

Brown

are secondary FS specialties, where non-FS educational programs exist, but where there is good method or theory overlap for futures education and practice.

Possible Futures Skills	Preferable Futures Skills	Probable Futures Skills
Alternative Futures	Anthropology and Culture Studies	Actuarial Sci, Risk Assessment, Insurance
Competitive Intelligence*	Cognitive and Positive Psychology	Critical (Evaluative) and Evidence-Based Thinking
Emerg. Issues, Cross Impact, Pattern Analys	Collab., Facilitation & Peace/Conflict Studies	Demographics and Sociology
Emerging Technologies Analysis*	Critical (Hidden Motivations) Futures and CLA	Development (Systemic) & Acceleration Stds
Evolution, Complexity, and Systems Stds	Ethics and Values Studies	Forecasting and Modeling/Sims (basic)
Futures, Sci-Fi, Utopian & Dystopian Lit Stds	Ethnographic Futures	Forecasting and Modeling/Sims (advanced)
Horizon Scanning and Weak Signals*	Foresight Frameworks and Foundations*	History and Analysis of Prediction
Images and Artifacts of the Future*	Integral Studies and Thinking	Investing and Finance (Long-Term)
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Studies	Leadership Studies and Org. Development	Prediction Markets*
Library Sci, Data Mining & Knowl. Mgmt	Long-Range and Urban Planning	Predictive Surveys / Delphi
Religious Studies (Future Beliefs)	Personal Futures/ Foresight Development*	Probabilistic (Statistical) Prediction
Scenario Development and Backcasting	Political Science and Policy Studies	Science & Tech Studies and Tech Analysis
Strategy Games, Serious and War Games*	Preferential Surveys / Polls, & Market Rsch	Sustainability and Devel. (Economic) Studies
Visioning, Intuition, and Creativity	Roadmapping	Systems Thinking
Wildcards	Socially Responsible / Triple Bott. Line Mgmt	Trend Extrapolation and Learning Curves
	Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning
	Strat. Planning, Decis. Analysis/Support, Ops Rsrch
	Transhumanist/Ethics of Emerg. Tech Stds*

ASF's specialties framework is roughly balanced across Amara's three fundamental foresight perspectives, with a slight emphasis on preferred (also called normative) futures.

Acceleration Studies Foundation - Integral Foresight Skills Framework (for the Specialties Above)

ASF's primary and secondary foresight specialties can also be categorized into four fundamental foresight skills (creating/innovating, discovering/predicting, planning/negotiating, or benefiting from/measuring progress toward the future). Depending on context, each particular specialty (e.g., Roadmapping, Systems Thinking) may be viewed as being employed in service to one, two, three, or all four of these fundamental foresight skills.

The philosopher Ken Wilber (A Brief History of Everything) proposes the following Integral/Four Quadrant Framework as a way to categorize fundamental complementary processes of human cognition and change.

Using this integral framework, we can derive four fundamental foresight skills, represented as follows.

Creating/Innovating "Seeing and making the future things, images, and ideals I want"	Benefiting/Measuring "Objectifying and measuring my progress toward a better future."
Planning/Negotiating "Getting consensus and forming strategies for the future we want."	Predicting/Discovering "Predicting and discovering how the system is moving toward the future."

Note that ASF's four fundamental foresight skills were specifically constructed by starting with the Wilber framework and extrapolating to the foresight domain. ASF proposes that learning how and when to use all four of these fundamental foresight skills will make you a well-balanced futurist. Neglect to learn any one of these you may have an incomplete and underdeveloped foresight model and skillset. All four seem necessary if one is to be a "whole" or "integral" futurist, with broad social and process effectiveness.

For example, many self-proclaimed futurists lack an adequate knowledge of science and systems, and may even state, both confidently and ignorantly, that "the future cannot be predicted." Yet we know that many parts of our sociocultural future are clearly predictable (eg., accelerating technological change, transparency, democratization, civil rights advance, etc.). Science and history reveal extensive pattern and predictability in the human domain, as long as we approach predictability from a statistical or probabilistic framework. As forecasting and actuarial work have long shown, many well-established and/or well-understood trends and cycles allow deep insights into complex aspects of society. There are also futurists who love to create/imagine and even plan, but who never measure the benefit (or the lack thereof) of the execution (or the lack thereof) of their plans.

Classifying the four skills from an Evo Devo Foresight perspective, we can regroup them into Evo, Devo, and Evo Devo categories: Creating/Innovating is an evolutionary process, discovering/predicting is a developmental process, and planning/negotiating and benefiting/measuring are both evo devo (adaptation, intersection) processes.

Consider how creating/innovating the future is fundamentally different from discovering universal constraints (such as scientific laws, or suspected laws) that in turn let you reliably predict certain aspects of the future (with your forecasts of course subject to statistical confirmation or falsification). By contrast, Planning/Negotiating for and Quantitatively Benefiting from/Measuring Progress toward toward the future are particularly adaptive and practical skills, lying between the poles of creating/innovating and discovering/predicting, and involving a little of both.

The Figure 1 cartoon proposes that human beings have used these four fundamental foresight skills in primarily evolutionary (evo), developmental (devo), and evolutionary developmental (evo devo) ways to create the forms of hierarchical complexity that we know as human social history. Beginning with autocracy, human social systems have moved through mercantilism and at least two different levels of capitalism, and most are now moving into democratic socialism. Beyond this we can forsee some form of planetized intelligence, coming via our accelerating technological systems. We are climbing this hierarcy in both an evolutionary and developmental manner.

This current highest destination on this ladder (democratic socialism, a form of capitalism with extensive social safety nets and broad human rights and entitlements in all cultures) while locally an evolutionary choice by each culture today, is also globally an apparent developmental trajectory, one which we are measurably and quantitatively approaching more closely every year, in all cultures, on average, as a species. But the nature, directionality, and quality of the evolutionary path each society, organization, and individual takes toward any developmental destination, however, are largely free choices. From ASF's evo devo foresight perspective, both the discovery of statistically predictable universal developmental constraints, and the creativity of choosing our own intrinsically unpredictable and creative evolutionary paths toward developmental destinations are the each the essence of our moral responsibility.




Corvinus University of Budapest - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


CNAM / Lab for Investig. in Prospective Strategy and Org. - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


European Joint (U Malta, U Potsdam, Teesside U, Turku Sch. of Econ) - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


Fo Guang University / Graduate Institute of Futures Studies - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


Monterrey Inst. of Tech / Center for Planning and Foresight - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


Regent University - Foresight Education Framework
The Master of Arts in Strategic Foresight (MSF) at Regent University, an interdenominational Christian university, is under its School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship. The MSF empowers mid-career leaders, average age 40 years old, to help their organizations adapt to changing industries and global environments. Offered online, the program prepares graduates to serve as professional futurists, strategy consultants, research analysts, creativity trainers, entrepreneurs or managers of innovation. Dr. Jay Gary is the program director, teaching there since 2003. The MSF is one of five degrees at the School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, many which carry their own foresight emphasis.

There are five primary learning objectives for Regent MSF students:
1. Develop leadership skills that help organizations navigate the challenges of chaos, complexity and globalization.
2. Demonstrate an openness to change, growth and development of your life, spanning moral, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and ego growth, across the post-conventional spectrum of adult development.
3. Develop the foresight knowledge and skills to help strategic leadership teams in decision making, planning and forecasting, as well as communication, facilitation, group process, and teamwork.
4. Develop a specialization as a professional futurist built on prior work experience that brings value to an industry or service sector.
5. Integrate one's faith into one's learning through research, writing and speaking.

There are eleven primary learning outcomes for Regent MSF students, achieved through service to your own or client organizations:
1. Employ key concepts and paradigms of organizational leadership and futures studies as mid-career professionals.
2. Document new and emerging trends relevant to your organization, and explore the nature of these driving forces, in terms of system dynamics, social change or alternative images of the future.
3. Create an environmental scanning system, enabling an organization's strategic leaders to track patterns of change across trends, events and issues.
4. Create system thinking models that map problems which organizations face in their internal and external environments.
5. Create a baseline forecast of trends for an organization which contains alternative futures, uncertainties, and wildcards relating to their competitive advantage.
6. Lead a departmental team to develop a strategic plan, which includes mission, vision, and goals, appropriately matched to the near-term competitive, customer and industry environment.
7. Lead a scenario learning process for a leadership team that tests team strategy against a range of possible futures.
8. Forecast the economic, workforce and community development needs of a city, one or two decades out and match these with emerging technologies and social innovations.
9. Evaluate the impact of a policy intervention in the context of national or regional change amidst 21st century driving forces.
10. Present one's ideas, concepts, and best practices in appropriate media such as, but not limited to popular press articles, lectures, and conferences.
11. Create and maintain a comprehensive portfolio of your work as a foresight professional for career advancement.

Regent also offers a Doctor of Strategic Leadership with a 3rd year foresight track for those who want to build and lead transformative organizations. Regent’s doctoral approach to strategic foresight is built on a unique framework of 1) leadership theory, 2) organizational sciences and 3) strategic management practices. Scholarship is balanced by additional work in: 4) personal development, 5) critical theory, and 6) post-conventional Christian spirituality.

Each year approximately 100 students at Regent take a variety of foresight courses, ranging from the MBA to the PhD. Twenty three students are presently enrolled in the MSF. [As of: 5/25/2008]


Swinburne University of Technology - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


Tamkang University / Graduate Institute of Futures Studies - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


Turku School of Economics /Finland Futures Research Centre - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


U of Hawaii - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


U of Houston - Foresight Education Framework
Below are the 23 primary learning objectives (skills, knowledge, and products) for the MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston, in the College of Technology, under Dr. Peter Bishop who has taught FS at U. Houston since 1982. Started in 1975, U. Houston's program is the oldest in the world and has graduated hundreds of students. Houston's program is focused primarily on the training of futures professionals for the business environment, but has attracted some nonprofit, institutional, government, military and academic futurists.

Generic Skills (6)	Skills of a person with a graduate degree
Research	Drawing knowledge and meaning from information
- Finding	Locating and retrieving accurate and relevant information
- Reading, Understanding, Citing	Understanding what I read and showing proper credit to someone else's ideas
- Analyzing	Articulating the parts that make up the whole
- Synthesizing	Combining two or more ideas into a third idea
- Interpreting, Drawing Conclusions, Making Inferences	Making interesting inferences with reasonable support
Thinking	Manipulating ideas
- Critical Thinking	Understanding the support for an inference and judging its adequacy
- Systems Thinking	Seeing the connections between things (structure) and explaining conditions (behavior) using those connections
- Creative Thinking	Developing novel, relevant ideas
Decision Making	Making recommendations and decisions for action
- Values Clarification	Understanding one's own and others' values
- Decision Analysis	Making decisions based on explicit criteria
Communication	Sharing ideas so that they are understood and accepted
- Speaking, Writing, and Visualizing	In oral, written, and graphical practice forms
Calculation	Manipulating numbers correctly to support inferences
Group Process	Facilitating, working with and leading others in effective group work

Futures Skills (4)	Skills of a person doing professional futures work
Current Assessment	Awareness and understanding of the current and future conditions of a topic
- Research (Historical, Current and Future Conditions)	Articulating what is known about a topic (past, present, expected or potential future) that is relevant to its future
- Scanning, Assessing Developments	Monitoring ongoing developments and adjusting what is known in light of recent developments
Foresight	Identifying differences between the present and the future
- Systems Models	Using the interconnectivity of forces and actors (structure) to explain conditions (behavior)
- Judgmental Tools	Using individuals' images, values and aspirations
- Time Series Analysis	Using quantitatitive data to analyze patterns and trends
- Qualitative Scenarios	Using imagistic projection to consider alternative futures
Planning	Organizing resources to create a preferred future for an enterprise
- Mission, Vision and Values	Service-oriented purpose of an enterprise, its ideals, and its principles
- Strategic Plans	Specific goals, measures, and strategies (means to achieve the goals) that are commitments of an enterprise
- Operational Plans	Detailed, short-term enterprise plans for allocating time, money, and other resources
Development	Increasing capacity of an enterprise to fulfill its mission, move toward its vision, & achieve its goals.
- Change Management	Supporting transformational change in an enterprise, group, or leader
- Project Management	Monitoring and coordinating short-term initiatives in an enterprise

Knowledge (4)	Facts about various topics relative to futures
Futures Studies as a Field	Knowledge about the futures field
- Origin, History	Knowledge about its origin and history
- Knowledge Base, Foundations	Knowledge about its theories and methods
- Stakeholders	Knowledge about the individuals, organizations, and projects that make up the field
- Trends, Issues, New Directions	Knowledge about current trends, issues, and new directions in the field
Emerging Global Context	Knowledge about current and emerging world conditions
Domain Specialty 1	Knowledge about an elective area of specialization
Domain Specialty 2	Knowledge about another elective area of specialization

Products (9)	Visible demonstration of skills for a professional futures portfolio
Framework Document	Systematic background research and a forecast in a specific domain
Scanning Journal	The most important new trends, events, and issues for a specific domain
Analytical Paper	Analyzing and explaining some aspect of change and the future
Ideas and Images Report	Interviews and questionnaires to elicit and report people's ideas and images of the future
Systems Model	Connections (structure) and explaining conditions (behavior) for a specific issue. Can be optionally presented in the form of a computer simulation
Scenario Set	Alternative future scenarios along with their implication for a specific domain
Vision	Envisioning and describing a preferred future for some group and domain
Strategic Plan	A planning document to fulfill a mission, move toward a vision, and/or achieve specific goals
Implementation Plan	A planning document to create the changes necessary to successfully execute a strategic plan

University of Stellenbosch - Foresight Education Framework
To be acquired.


WFS Futures Education Section - Foresight Education Framework (Introductory College Course)
The Educational Standards Working Group (ESWG) of the WFS FES seeks to create "a fundamental framework for all Futuring courses offered by institutions of higher education." Below is a provisional framework for an introductory college course in futures studies. They use the term 'futuring,' as opposed to futures studies, after the book by the same name, Futuring: The Exploration of the Future, 2005 by Ed Cornish, founder of the World Future Society.

• Historic Perspective of Futuring
• Early Fiction Writers and their Work
• Methods
• Forecasting
• Trends
• Scanning
• Scenarios
• Games
• 'Webbing'
• Backcasting
• Systems
• Current Events
• Historic Projections and Outcomes
• Personal use of Futuring
• Cause-Effect and Correlation
• Futuring Resources

This seems a good introductory framework for the freshman/sophomore level. The ESWG is surveying futures professionals for their feedback and alternative suggestions.


Additional Foresight Education Frameworks
Please list additional education frameworks here, or in comments at the bottom of this page. Thank you!



Section II. Foresight Practice Frameworks (skills and procedures)

Acceleration Studies Foundation - Roadmapping Framework
This 21-category research framework, was used for a year long research project, ASF's Metaverse Roadmap survey of the future of the 3D web. It is an adaptation of Peter Bishop's (U Houston) Forecasting Framework model.

I. INDUSTRY CONDITIONS
1. History
2. Current Conditions
3. Constants
4. Assumptions
II. FORESIGHT
5. Vision Statements
6. Plans and Studies
7. Cycles
8. Trends and Extrapolations
9. Predictions
10. Positive Scenarios
11. Negative Scenarios
12. Wildcard Scenarios
13. Headlines
III. ISSUES + QUESTIONS
14. Issues and Choices
15. Ideas and Proposals
16. Key Uncertainties
IV. PROBLEMS + INDICATORS
17. Precompetitive Challenges
18. Competitive Challenges
19. Progress Indicators
V. APPENDIX
20. Glossary
21. References

Association of Professional Futurists - Foresight Practice Frameworks
(Add here)


Marshall McLuhan - Tetrad System for Technology Analysis
McLuhan analyzed technology's impact on society using four questions:

• What does any artifact enlarge or enhance?
• What does it erode or obsolesce?
• What does it retrieve that had been earlier obsolesced?
• What does it reverse or flip into when pushed to the limits of its potential?

He considered these a holistic, integral system for understanding past, present, and future impacts. For more see this web outline, with past, present, and future analysis examples, or any of his books.


STEEP, STEEPS, STEEPS3, and ST7EEPS3 Foresight Practice Frameworks

STEEP is a generic foresight framework developed for environmental scanning purposes, as a minimal taxonomy of categories in which to place environmental "scan hits" collected in futures research. It has been used by the foresight community at least since the 1960's (see Handbook of Futures Research, Jib Fowles and Robert B. Fowles (eds.), 1978). It stands for:

STEEPS is an improved generic foresight framework, used by more technologically-minded futurists. It stands for:


In STEEPS, Science is importantly separated out and placed first, as basic science research is the most fundamental driver and enabler of Technology, which in turn, for better and worse, is the most fundamental driver and shaper of EEPS (the global environment and human society). Furthermore, Science is clearly a different animal from Technology (applied knowledge). Finally, certain domains of the sciences (information and computer sciences, neuroscience, nanotechnology) are among the most powerful and accelerative (fastest changing) areas of human inquiry.

STEEPS3 is a yet more comprehensive foresight practice framework, used in ASF's foresight development courses for environmental scanning and knowledge base development. It stands for:


ST7EEPS3 is an even more comprehensive foresight practice framework, appropriate for use in programs that focus on the power of accelerating technologies to solve challenging global problems, such as the highly interdisciplinary program at Singularity University. It stands for:


In ST7EEPS3, a 14 category framework, any science with potential near-future technological application is grouped with its appropriate technology track. Thus the first category, Science, Complexity, Evolution, and Development, is reserved for scientific, complexity, evolution and development theory and knowledge of a more general, broadly applicable, or abstract nature.


Technology Futures Inc. "Five Views" Foresight Practice Framework



Analytical, survey, and alternative futures theory and methods. Nice detail.


U of Houston - Management Foresight Practice Framework:

Peter Bishop of U. Houston proposes that good organizational management involves at least the following six competency stages:

Foresight > Forecasting > Planning > R&D > Operations > Evaluation

In most companies, planning (initial and periodic business plans, strategic plans, operational plans), and R&D are the typical ways managers think about and orient their operations toward the future. But as this framework shows, there are two entire stages (practices or departments) that should exist ahead of planning (foresight and forecasting) in any significant organization, and one after operations (evaluation, which cycles back to improve all the prior stages) which must be mastered by the effective management team.

In addition to good planning, R&D, and operations, managers need to build a forecasting competency to feed valuable quantitative and qualitative projections to the planning group, and a foresight competency which does environmental scanning, scenarios, expert surveys, and other futures work to improve qualitative and quantitative forecasts and achieve more robust and practical plans. Finally, all of these competencies need to be continually evaluated and improved in the competitive environment.


U of Houston - Foresight Forecasting Framework
(Add Bishop's Forecasting Framework here)


Additional Foresight Practice Frameworks
Please list additional practice frameworks here.