The future can be a mysterious and intangible concept, but it can also be a space for imagination and empowerment. Better understanding the role of the future in what you see and do, can enhance our ability to navigate change. Unesco called it Futures Literacy: an evolving set of skills and experiences, mostly learned in collective action, that everyone can and should acquire.
Within this project, we experienced firsthand how futures literacy equips young people with the skills, mindset, and agency to shape their own futures, and contribute to positive change for themselves and society. You become futures literate through collective intelligence processes in which participants learn together, come to understand their respective points of views, reconnect with the deep sources in their history, culture and life that shape their hopes and fears…
These activities, involving close to 200 teenagers and young adults from Slovakia and Belgium, also opened a window into how this generation thinks about its, and our future. Here, we share some of the outcomes of the Futures Is Now project: what the young participants created and what that leads us to understand about their hopes, aspirations and worries; and also what we, the project organisers, learned from the whole process.
Please, take your exo-seat and fasten your safety shell.
Some serious time travel awaits you.
