How is this project organised?

The FutureMakers project has been organised in five stages. Each step develops an increasingly nuanced picture of what New Zealand’s future might look like and how challenges and opportunities to be addressed.

 

Phase 1: Meta-Analysis (May to August 2008)

We began by bringing together recent futures work in the New Zealand State Sector and triangulating this with a recent high quality international meta-analysis of trends and drivers.

 

The State Services Commission supported FutureMakers to carry out this meta-analysis. Their Futures Forum Steering Group helped to identify relevant material.

 

We analysed this material to look for convergences, divergences and gaps in relation to Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental and Political trends (STEEP) and also identified the range of scenario work included in the material.

 

The product of this first step is a high-level analysis.  You can read the analysis here

 

We invited experts to test and refine the analyses. You can read what came out of five FutureMaking conversation held in August in Wellington here

 

Phase 2: Pattern Recognition (September 2008)

This stage of FutureMakers built on the first phase of the FutureMakers project and explored the cross-cutting issues that emerged.  This led to a range of stories about past and current myths and future possibilities for New Zealand and the questions they provoke.  

 

You can read what came out of the two FutureMaking conversations here 

 

Phase 3: Responding to the Picture (September/October2008)

Having identified some possibilities for New Zealand’s future we are now distilling the overarching questions we need to ask to ensure New Zealand becomes a Future Maker, not a Future Taker.

 

At the same time, we are now broadening the FutureMaking conversations to include more New Zealanders. Anyone can reflect on insights from the research and previous conversations in the forum 

 

Phase 4: Outreach and Engagement (October/November 2008)

In the latter half of the project  we will be  sharing the insights about the challenges and opportunities  for New Zealand’s possible and preferred futures through a range of activities.  Let us know if you would like to have an in depth conversation about the FutureMakers findings.  

 

Phase 5: What Next (November 2008 onwards)

This project was prompted by the fact that New Zealand has both the legacy of a developed country, with established infrastructure, and the reality of being a small player with a limited resource base. There is a risk that New Zealand could become a ‘future-taker’ instead of a ‘future-maker’, and be forced to take paths that would not have been consciously chosen. To keep choices open, New Zealanders need to develop a shared understanding about long-term opportunities and challenges. To reach this understanding, we need to engage in thoughtful and well-informed conversations that traverse the ground beyond the here and now. We need to develop the infrastructure and capability for having these conversations to identify the most important long-run issues and to then manage them proactively.

 

This project has been a ‘taster’ of the benefits of such work.  The next step is to clarify the infrastructure and capabilities New Zealand needs to identify and respond to strategic issues on an ongoing basis and to build support for putting this in place.

 

To be part of this process contact

Derek Gill, Visiting Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies, derek.gill@vuw.ac.nz, Ph. +64 4 4636996

Stephanie Pride, Chief Advisor, Secondary Futures, stephanie.pride@vuw.ac.nz, Ph. +64 4 4996279

Bob Frame, Principal Scientist, Landcare Research, FrameB@landcareresearch.co.nz, Ph. +64 3 3219673