Just read an interesting article on visioning exercises. Essentially, it claims that most visioning exercises are not grounded in reality by being absent from place, we are bound by our ‘expectational reflexivity’. Further, by ignoring our fears and uncertainties over the present and the future, is a major barrier to fully engaging with the challenges and opportunities of a sustainable future.
Similarly, my former doctoral supervisor, dear colleague and friend, Dr. Stuart Hill, leads visioning exercises by asking people to tell the most outrageous lies about the sustainability accomplishments they have achieved, and then they backcast to talk about what is preventing them from acting on their ‘lie’.
I am going to write Stuart and ask him if he has a paper on his technique. Stay tuned.
Saunders & Jenkins. (2012). “Absent fear”: Re-envisioning a future geography. Futures, 44: 494-503
