A healthy society and culture depends on a healthy environment. This project explores how Scotland’s environment might change over the coming years and how our relationship with it will and should change at the same time. It also asks what our societal and cultural relationship with our surroundings should be in 2030 to ensure a…
This reception marked the 10th anniversary of the Comparative Agendas Project, a worldwide network of political and data scientists working to investigate trends in government, parliamentary and legal activity over time.
Scotland 2030: Goodison Group in Scotland Forum Debate Read the Education in 2030 – Our Aspirations Event Report The Goodison Group in Scotland continued its on-going investigation into education and learning in the future with a debate in the Scottish Parliament on 13 June 2017. Building on the thoughts and aspirations identified at the debate…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @Nell Widger Earlier this year the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) and Mountaineering Scotland made an unlikely alliance in opposition to government plans to plant thousands of new trees. According to the Guardian, the Scottish Government intends to increase woodland cover from 17% to 25% by 2050 as part of its Draft…
As part of the Scotland 2030 Programme, and on the basis that a strong society and economy can exist in the long term only if the environment – land, air and water – are functioning well, the Futures Forum supported an investigation into what Scotland’s environment might look like in 2030. Asking the question “How…
By Nicola Martin, @NicolaMartin14 “We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.” This summary of a quotation from French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire is commonly used by commentators who wish to present Scotland as a beacon of civilisation and enlightenment in both the past and the present. [1] However, such a phrase and interpretation…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger A curious thing happened in Scotland during the Romantic period: vast numbers of tourists from Britain, Europe and elsewhere used new road networks and steam packet routes to access the landscapes they valued as wild and remote. According to John and Margaret Gold, those tourists had two main objectives when…
The first line of an article I read this morning proclaimed that: “Technology has driven human civilisation for thousands of years.” [1] Businessman Mukesh Ambani was discussing the opportunities for India to become a world leader in technology as humanity sits on the cusp of a fourth Industrial Revolution that looks set to blur the…
By Nicola Martin, University of Stirling and @NicolaMartin14 5 April 2017 Before we consider what various stakeholders understand by the notion of a civilised nation or civilisation in the present, and even before we consider the various past perspectives of these notions, it is useful to understand the definitions of the words themselves, where the…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger 13 April 2017 Something has troubled me as I’ve progressed through my internship thinking about Scotland’s relationship to landscape. My research background in the Environmental Humanities has taught me to be sceptical of the term ‘nature’ – what can it really mean, and does it really exist, in the context of millennia…
Scotland’s Futures Forum – the Scottish Parliament’s in-house think tank – launched its Scotland 2030 programme on Wednesday 29 March 2017. Billed as an exploration of Scotland’s culture and society, the programme will ask what kind of country do we want Scotland to be in 2030? The launch event examined developments in technology as its…
As part of the launch of our Scotland 2030 Programme in March 2017, we asked award-winning folk singer, songwriter and essayist Karine Polwart (@IAMKP) to reflect on the cultural implications for our society from technological change. In response, Karine brought three imagined news stories from 2030. Karine read the stories and reflected on why she wrote them….
This debate with Karine Polwart and Chris van der Kuyl in March 2017 explored the effect technological innovation would have on life in Scotland.
An imagined news story from 2030 by Karine Polwart. Written in 2017, “Betty Bags a Booker” reflects on the effect of automation on our society and culture.
An imagined news story from 2030 by Karine Polwart. Written in 2017, “A Digital Haven” reflects on the mixed effect of technology on Scotland’s rural areas.
An imagined news story from 2030 by Karine Polwart. Written in 2017, “Karmic Payback” reflects on the role of apps and personal data in our health and wellbeing.
Scotland 2030: Goodison Group in Scotland Forum Debate Read the Education in 2030: Our Aspirations – Event Report To kick off its investigation into education and learning in the future, the Goodison Group in Scotland held a debate on 21 March 2017 on our aspirations for education in 2030 in conjunction with Scotland’s Futures Forum….
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger I began my last post by describing the view from my Futures Forum desk. Looking past my computer towards Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags, I received what Neal Ascherson describes in his beautiful and illuminating book, Stone Voices, as ‘a lesson in the unimaginable forces and lapses of time which…
By Nicola Martin, University of Stirling and @NicolaMartin14 Whilst the current view from my window is not as symbolic as Eleanore’s (I’m currently working from home rather than the Parliament), I too found my thinking for this opening post directed by one of Scotland’s many evocative landscapes. I started my day as I often do: an…
By Eleanore Widger, University of Dundee and @NellWidger As I write this I can see, to the right of my computer screen, the gorse-covered north-west side of an extinct volcano, a huge slab of rock which juts diagonally out of a 640 acre landscaped royal park in a city centre. Where else could I be…
By Rob Littlejohn, Head of Business at Scotland’s Futures Forum Although I’ve titled this blogpost “New kid on the block”, I can’t pretend that I’m that new, having been in the privileged position of Head of Business for Scotland’s Futures Forum since October last year. Since being appointed, I’ve spent a lot of the time getting…
Seminar with Nesta Scotland in February 2017 on what Scotland can learn from digital democracy pioneers throughout Europe.
The growing level of automation in Scotland’s economy and the implications for our workforce was the subject of a Scotland’s Futures Forum’s Breakfast Seminar in 2017. Hosted by Richard Leonard MSP on behalf of the Parliament’s Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee, the seminar heard from Ewan Mearns of Scottish Enterprise’s strategy and sectors team…
Workshop in November 2016 to support the SUII programme on Fostering Cultures of Innovation, featuring video presentations of each project.
With Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials all sharing the workplace, this forum debate in September 2016 focused on intergenerational learning.
If we look over the horizon to 2020, what would an equitable education look like? This GGiS forum in September 2015 focused on equity in education and improving attainment.
This forum debate with the Goodison Group in Scotland in March 2015 explored learning environments, with a focus on technology.
What will community, support and social services mean and look like in 2025? Imagining the Future Scenarios There is absolutely no reason to expect that by 2025 social services in Scotland will look the same as they do today. What does the future hold for social services in 2025? Nobody knows for sure. It is…
New research reveals up to £1.23 billion tax gain by increasing the number of successfully transferred SMEs and Family Businesses in Scotland Research demonstrates how SMEs and Family Businesses can significantly grow the Scottish economy. It also suggests that governments across Europe need to recognise the importance of providing support for business transfers to help…
As part of Scotland’s Futures Forum strategic link with the Goodison Group in Scotland in the area of learning and skills, our organisations undertook a project on Scotland as a world-leading learning nation. This ambitious project took a futures look at the learning environment in 2025 and beyond. It aims to help to change attitudes…
The Edinburgh Beltane Beacon for Public Engagement held an event on 15 June 2011, focusing on ‘Realising the Potential of Engaged Universities’.
Report from a conversation café in June 2011 held as part of the development of the Oxfam Humankind Index.
In early March 2011, Scotland’s Futures Forum along with Edinburgh Beltane hosted two seminars to consider the findings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s report ‘Facing up to climate change: breaking the barriers to a low-carbon Scotland’. These events were attended by MSPs, policymakers, academics and others with an interest in the subject.
Increasing numbers of women are being imprisoned in Scotland (and other comparable jurisdictions), and this cannot be explained by rates of offending or changes in the nature of offences. The Scottish Universities Insight Institute recently held a series of workshops to consider the criminal justice system’s response to women’s offending and its findings were presented…
Seminar in November 2010 with public, private and voluntary sectors on an innovative way of funding solutions to social problems.
As part of the 2010-11 seminar series, in partnership with Edinburgh Beltane, a Futures Forum was held on 15 November 2010 bringing together around 70 delegates to explore what is understood by ‘an inclusive Scotland in 2020’ in relation to minority languages. In particular, participants considered what the future might be for British Sign Language….
A scenario project from 2010 examining what sustainable communities might look like in Scotland in 2030. Features report and scenarios video.
In 2010, Scotland’s Futures Forum and the City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture and Sport Division engaged in a short-term project to explore the future of the city’s arts and culture sector. The purpose of the project was for those in the arts and culture sector to share their aspirations for the future, and to consider how they…
Project in 2010 looking at challenges to Scotland’s public finances from budget constraints, technological change and shifting relationships.
Futures Forum seminar in March 2010 on realising a low carbon economy. Key messages include a lack of systemic policy making and Scotland’s unique opportunities
A futures discussion paper on the National Trust for Scotland produced in 2010 for the Reid Review.
Seminar in September 2009 on what might a Scottish welfare system look like in 2020? With Swedish expert Prof Joakim Palme
Conference in May 2009 on poverty and inequalities in Scotland. A decade after devolution, what has improved and what are the priorities for the future?
Report from 2008 from a project on how we can reduce the damage caused by alcohol and drug misuse by half by 2025.
Report from 2007 from a futures project taking a positive approach to an ageing society. Includes key questions and three scenarios for discussion