Emilio Fontela: Foresight, a Way of Life

Emilio Fontela, whose intelligence and humility were equalled only by his great warm-heartedness, died from cancer on 27 July 2007 at the age of 69. He leaves a large gap in the many organizations – universities, associations, think-tanks etc. – in which he was heavily involved. And not least in the Futuribles International association, of which he had been a trustee for many years, and in the journal Futuribles, to which he contributed as author and member of the steering committee. André Gabus, a friend and long-time collaborator, pays homage to him here, highlighting the contribution he made in economic matters, particularly his capacity judiciously to combine forecasting (particularly econometric models) and foresight approaches (particularly the scenarios method).
André Gabus shows how, alongside his distinctive analysis of relative prices, Emilio Fontela was able to deploy economic knowledge for the exploration of possible futures. He recalls the role played by Fontela in the analysis of globalization and of the unforeseen negative effects of free-market absolutism. Lastly, he describes how Emilio Fontela employed foresight studies in the service of the “mastery of societal destinies”.