I Futures Studies in Italia: Un’indagine esplorativa su organizzazioni, approcci, obiettivi

Abstract

Futures Studies in Italy have a long history. Starting from the contribution of its founders, such as Aurelio Peccei, co-founders of the Club of Rome at the end of the 1960s, Pietro Ferraro, with the Italian version of Futuribles, Eleonora Barbieri Masini, “the mother of Futures Studies”, and many others, the discipline has evolved over time, developing different interests, methodologies, and studies in Italy. Nowadays, Italy seems to nurture a complex field of activities related to the Futures. After a short historical introduction of Futures Studies in Italy, the paper illustrates the state of the art of contemporary Futures Studies through an exploratory assessment of the organizations, approaches, and objectives that are being developed nowadays. The research design is composed of an exploratory activity selecting the most prominent organizations in the field, and of a web survey and dissemination activity through which information about those organizations and their perceptions of Futures Studies in Italy, in terms of challenges and opportunities, are collected and analyzed. The resulting framework shows how complex Futures Studies are becoming in Italy, by analyzing the current organizations working in Italy in the Field and what are their perceptions of challenges and opportunities for Futures Studies in Italy.