Futurs Studies and Policy Studies: Complementary Flelds in Pubic Affairs

Abstract

Future studies and policy studies are fuzzy 11multifields18 with overlapping concerns. They are far larger than conventional wisdom suggests, as illustrated by a taxonomic listing of 275 futures‐relevant and policy‐relevant journals. The journal literature has doubled in the past nine years. An adequate intellectual perspective for public policy requires bridge‐building between differing perspectives, especially a general bridge between future studies and policy studies which have largely ignored each other. Futurists are characterized as more likely to be cross‐disciplinary o r nondisciplinary, outsiders, idealists, generalists, catalysts and synthesizers. Policy analysts are more likely to be social scientists, affiliated with well‐known universities and research institutes, emplrical 81 realists, 88 specialists in a particular problem, and analytic in method. Ideally, these two sets of qualities should work together to study important public questions and propose viable policies.

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