{"id":63593,"date":"2022-05-04T11:36:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T09:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/faq\/quest-ce-que-la-prospective\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T14:20:44","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:20:44","slug":"quest-ce-que-la-prospective","status":"publish","type":"faq","link":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/faq\/quest-ce-que-la-prospective\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Foresight?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Foresight \u2014 in French, Prospective<\/em> \u2014 is an approach to thinking about the future and exploring possible futures that aims to inform collective action and decision-making by taking long-term considerations into account.<\/p>\n

By extension, the term foresight is applied to those professional practices that have developed around this approach (methods, tools, actors etc.).<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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Historically,<\/strong> the French adjective prospectif\/ve <\/em>describes something or someone that looks forward, towards the future. This adjective is used, for example, to describe a way of looking at things, a state of mind (Gaston Berger), an approach to issues. In the sense of an \u2018ability to forecast\u2019, the term goes back at least to Renaissance times.<\/p>\n

The birth and development of prospective <\/em>(foresight infra<\/em>) as a discipline are linked to a need on the part of decision-makers to anticipate the future. Foresight \u2014 known also as futurology and futures studies (and, at various times, by a host of other names) \u2014 developed from the 1930s onwards, when it became obvious to some of them that decisions with significant long-term consequences needed to be based on a set of robust predictions.<\/p>\n

The objective of foresight is to know, understand and anticipate<\/strong>, before deciding and acting.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Today<\/strong>, foresight is more commonly seen as a process or an exercise. This corresponds to the development of its practices, which combine the work of anticipation (or forecasting) with bringing together the various stakeholders (citizens, actors, experts etc.) and preparing for action (public policy, strategy, innovation etc.).<\/p>\n

Foresight includes an element of research, reflection or study of the future<\/strong>, but it goes beyond that to embrace also the orienting of those studies by their end-goal, that goal being to assist decision-making in situations of uncertainty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This notion of \u2018assisting decision-making\u2019 has to be understood in a broad sense. Foresight exercises may, classically, enable possible strategic options to be prepared<\/strong> for a clearly-defined decision-maker (CEO, government etc.), but they may also, in a much looser way, promote changes in the way a group of actors<\/strong> dealing with a single problem views that issue<\/strong>, in such a way as to foster the emergence of appropriate responses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Jacques Lesourne\u2019s view,<\/strong> foresight aims to \u2018create shared views<\/strong> (on present and future issues) in order to prepare strategy<\/strong>.\u2019 The foresight approach produces meaning and it also gives a sense of direction. In other words, it produces content \u2014 meaning, shared understanding and knowledge \u2014 and also a purpose and a vision for collective action.<\/p>\n

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What they have said about Foresight<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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\u2018There is no favourable wind for the person who doesn\u2019t know where he is heading\u2019<\/em><\/h3>\n

Seneca<\/strong>, <\/em>633-64 AD<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018Chance favours only prepared minds\u2019 <\/em><\/h3>\n

Louis Pasteur, <\/strong>speech at the University of Lille, 1854<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018The future isn\u2019t foreseen, it is prepared\u2019 <\/em><\/h3>\n

Maurice Blondel<\/strong>, 1941<\/em>
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\u2018Where the future is concerned, the point is not to foresee it but to make it possible\u2019 <\/em><\/h3>\n

Antoine de Saint-Exup\u00e9ry<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>Citadelle, 1948<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018Before it is a method or a discipline, foresight is an attitude\u2019 for \u2018seeing long, seeing broad, analysing deep, taking risks and thinking of humanity\u2019<\/em><\/h3>\n

Gaston Berger<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>Ph\u00e9nom\u00e9nologie du temps et prospective, 1964<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018The foresighter\u2019s gaze oscillates intentionally between the possible and the desirable\u2019 <\/em><\/h3>\n

G\u00e9rald Antoine and Jean-Claude Passeron<\/strong>, <\/em>La R\u00e9forme de l\u2019Universit\u00e9, 1966<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018Seeing so many foresighters and reformers straining to prepare the future, we may wonder whether they are not striving at it so furiously in order to disguise the fact that they are powerless to make even the slightest changes to the present<\/em>\u2019<\/h3>\n

Georges Elgozy<\/strong>, <\/em>Le D\u00e9sordinateur, 1972 <\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018To elucidate present action by the light of possible and desirable futures\u2019<\/em><\/h3>\n

Michel Godet<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>La Prospective strat\u00e9gique, 1997<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018As neither prophecy nor prediction, <\/em>la prospective (foresight) does not aim to predict the future \u2014 to unveil it as if it were prefabricated \u2014 but to help us build it\u2019 <\/em><\/h3>\n

Hugues de Jouvenel, <\/em><\/strong>An Invitation to Foresight, 2004.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\u2018The future is a realm of freedom, of power and of will. It is at once a land to be explored [\u2026], and a land to be built on\u2019<\/em><\/h3>\n

Hugues de Jouvenel<\/strong>, <\/em>An Invitation to Foresight, 2004.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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For Further Information<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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Go to the \u2019History and memory of foresight of foresight\u2019 page<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n \n\n
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Go to the page on the Basics of foresight<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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Some glossaries on foresight<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n
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A Glossary of Terms commonly used in Futures Studies<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Foresight Glossary <\/em>en ligne<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-63593","faq","type-faq","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faq\/63593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faq"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/faq"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}