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The Future: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) Illustrated Edition

by Jennifer Gidley (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 60 ratings
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From the beginning of time, humans have been driven by both a fear of the unknown and a curiosity to know. We have always yearned to know what lies ahead, whether threat or safety, scarcity or abundance. Throughout human history, our forebears tried to create certainty in the unknown, by seeking to influence outcomes with sacrifices to gods, preparing for the unexpected with advice from oracles, and by reading the stars through astrology. As scientific methods improve and computer technology develops we become ever more confident of our capacity to predict and quantify the future by accumulating and interpreting patterns from the past, yet the truth is there is still no certainty to be had.

In this Very Short Introduction Jennifer Gidley considers some of our most burning questions: What is "the future?" Is the future a time yet to come? Or is it a utopian place? Does the future have a history? Is there only one future or are there many possible futures? She asks if the future can ever be truly predicted or if we create our own futures -both hoped for and feared - by our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and concludes by analyzing how we can learn to study the future.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0198735286
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0198735281
  3. Edition
    Illustrated
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    June 1, 2017
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    0.5 x 5.3 x 7.5 inches
  8. Print length
    192 pages
  9. See all details
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Book Description

In this Very Short Introduction Jennifer Gidley considers some of our most burning questions: What is "the future"?

About the Author

Jennifer is an Australian futurist, author, psychologist and educator. She is a global thought leader and advocate for human-centred futures in an era of hi-tech hype and hubris. As former President of the World Futures Studies Federation (2009-2017), a UNESCO and UN partner and global peak body for futures studies, she led a network of hundreds of world leading futures scholars and researchers from around the globe. 
An Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS, Sydney, she has worked as an academic in three other Australian universities, including the Swinburne University MSc (Strategic Foresight). She holds research fellowships in Europe. 
Jennifer is a prolific author of dozens of academic papers, serves on several academic boards, and most recently authored The Future: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2017) & Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures (Springer, 2016). 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Illustrated edition (June 1, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0198735286
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0198735281
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.5 x 5.3 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 60 ratings

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Jennifer Gidley

Jennifer Gidley

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Jennifer M. Gidley, PhD, is an Australian author, climate educator, psychologist, futures researcher. She is an Adjunct Professor Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS) Sydney, and Principal at Global Futures Education. She has held academic positions within three other Australian universities (1995-2012), and holds academic posts in Europe.

She works globally with speaking and research collaborations including Australia, Europe, the USA, Middle East and Asia. 
Jennifer's PhD was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal for Academic Excellence.

Jennifer's experience in developing online courses in futures thinking and foresight includes two Australian universities, an online US university, an Iranian Think Tank in Tehran, and most recently the European Commission Future Forward project in collaboration with TED-Ed.

As former President (2009-2017) of the World Futures Studies Federation, a UNESCO and UN partner founded in Paris in 1973, she led the global peak body for futurists from 60 countries. She serves on several academic editorial boards, has published dozens of academic papers, and several books.

Her recent books include: The Future: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures (Springer, 2016). Her newest book is The Secret to Growing Brilliant Children: Volume 1 Steiner Education for the 21st Century (March 2020).

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
60 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Leah S
5.0 out of 5 stars So much more than skimming futures...
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2017
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I pre-ordered The Future, but wished it was around before I began my PhD. As someone who became interested in college futures at an institution that didn't incorporate futures studies, I had to find materials and experts on my own. Gidley has been one such expert I have turned to, especially since some of her work also focuses on college futures. I was amazed at the depth of this particular book. I simply thought it would skim a lot of the resources I already knew since I've read a majority of the futures collections out there. This book does so much more than that, including helping to form categories and connections between researchers and resources. I was immediately impressed by the first chapter; Gidley incorporated topics I hadn't even considered futures studies including time and calendars. She managed to think through my questions about technotopian and human-centered futures - what is a better direction and how do we work to get there? Finally, I was excited to see her mention of Erich Jantsch, another one of my research interests. If you are interested in futures, this is a must-have book. this one doesn't go on the shelf, however. I may need to reference and revisit often.
3 people found this helpful
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Wild Rover
4.0 out of 5 stars Good theoreitcal intro
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2019
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Helpful intro to the topic and theoretical background of the future, but it fails to provide more insights about how to analyse, forecast or make prospective. Most of the book is a timeline of the main authors (that is very valuable)
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Michael Valdivielso
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting...
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019
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First off the book isn't really about the Future as much as it is about studies and how people try to foresee and predict the future. What they call future studies. From prophets to transhumanism she covers a LOT. Even has a tiny timeline in the back of the book and a wonderful list of books and websites for future reading. The subject is pretty hard to explain. I mean, how do people predict the future? Why do people wish to predict the future? Can the future BE predicted? Well, read this and decide for yourself.
2 people found this helpful
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David S
3.0 out of 5 stars Futurists: Visionaries or Propagandists?
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2017
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This is a 5-star book for an audience of global climate crisis supplicants. Skeptics, however, will award only 3-stars, disappointed that the author abandoned objectivity and balance in an otherwise informed treatment of the topic.
Dr. Gidley greets her readers with the uplifting claims that: “The future we face today is one that threatens our very existence as a species. … The impact of climate crisis alone is pointing to frightening futures of rising seas, drowning cities, mass migration of climate refugees, drastic food shortages due to loss of arable land to drought, floods and salination, and the mass extinction of species. … And this is just the beginning.” (Page 1)
By page 48, she concedes that “Although climate change is amenable to scientific study, the complexity of it make it impossible to predict in detail. In the absence of clear prediction, and because of the enormity of the potential harm that can be caused by unmitigated climate crisis, we need to employ the precautionary principal.” i.e., assume the absolute worst-case scenario.
In closing, Dr. Gidley reiterates her confidence in an inevitable disaster: “The most disturbing global challenge is climate crisis. I acknowledge that the notion of anthropologic climate change is not universally agreed, and that while the science is clear, the politics is not. … It is widely agreed … potentially irreversible …melting polar glaciers …rising sea levels … flooding … inundation … very likely to drive mass migration on a scale not seen for 10,000 years…” (Page 132, emphasis added).
So, welcome to THE FUTURE: A Very Short Introduction as envisioned by Dr. Gidley, President of the World Futures Studies Federation (a UN Partner).
After several fascinating and well-documented chapters on the history and development of Futures Studies as a formal discipline, Dr. Gidley laments that: “In spite of the substantial body of futures literature with its conceptual and methodological innovation and engagement with real world issues, misconceptions abound in academic, professional and policy circles. … No matter how many scholarly books are written about futures studies, or how many university courses provide education in futures concepts, theories and methods, the media frequently trivializes the field.” (pages 82-83, emphasis added).
Perhaps unintentionally, Dr. Gidley clearly exposes why Futures Studies suffer such a credibility deficiency.
In Chapter 3, Dr. Gidley documents how the discipline of Futures Studies “evolved” from its quantitative and empirical origins –positivism– (RAND Corporation, Royal Dutch/Shell, Global Business Network) and was commandeered by social science academics (seeking relevance?) who promoted qualitative (touchy-feely) post-positivism / pluralism concepts: “Critical futurists sought to balance the predictive approaches of many US futurists, and the dominance of their involvement in the military-industrial complex. They are unashamedly normative and refer to ‘preferred (or desirable) futures’.” (Page 67, emphasis added).
Dr. Gidley categorizes the post-positivism approaches to include: critical/postmodern, cultural/interpretive, participatory/prospective and integral/holistic. She acknowledges that these approaches are vulnerable to “perceived subjectivity … excessive relativism … lack [of] feasibility ... lack [of] legitimacy in scientific circles … lack of depth …” (Page 68-73.) Her candidness is noted.
Bottom line: Post-positivist futurists, first, specify their end-games (preferred/desired future), and, then, construct dense postmodern (potentially subjective, relativistic, infeasible, scientifically illegitimate and shallow) language to rationalize their agendas… speaking in tongues of incomprehensible pseudo-lingo (See Sokal, Beyond the Hoax). I propose that “misconceptions” and “trivialization” are self-inflicted, and well-deserved criticisms.
If, as Dr. Gidley claims, the climate crisis science is settled, it follows that her version of the climate future is inevitable (drowning cities, mass migration of refugees, drastic food shortages, etc.) and all that remains are the politics of responding to the doom. Which leads to the question: Other than hyperbole, what unique, specialized roles / niche skills / value-added can post-positivist futurists contribute to the established political machinery of lawyers, lobbyists, policy wonks, fund raisers, propagandists, community organizers, etc.? How often are futurists consulted after an earthquake, hurricane, flood or volcano eruption?
Clearly, some futurists have been adept at the profitable promotion of “the sky is falling!” scare tactics: The Population Bomb, Limits to Growth, An Inconvenient Truth. (These authors should all honor Saul Alinsky for compiling his Rules for Radicals -- Rule #9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.") However, the award for melodramatic climate crisis alarmism has already been bestowed upon Al Gore and Bill Nye, the Science Guy!
There is no need to consult scholarly books about futures studies, concepts, theories and methods to express a ‘preferred/desirable future’. Letters-to-the-editor offer an ample diet of unicorns and rainbows. Could a post-positivist futurist articulate my preferred future any more eloquently: “Son, it's faster horses, younger women, older whiskey!” – Tom T. Hall?
It appears, then, that post-positivist futurists, cloaked in a disguise of academic professionalism, are merely clever activists and propagandists, promoting a predetermined agenda (global climate justice imposed by a UN world governance—Page 134). Perhaps Dr. Gidley, renowned futurists, innovative educator and post-formal psychologist, should add “crisis propagandist” to her impressive list of commendations. Trivialized, indeed.
8 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent work on Futures Studies
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2017
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Dr. Gidley's “Very Short Introduction” provides an excellent, concise summary of the history of Futures work and speculates on the craft’s own potential futures. Especially useful are explanations of how it evolved in the last half of the 20th Century from a largely predictive empirical process of extending trends (applied largely to corporate and military modeling) for determining a singular future, to more recent work that welcomes social, cultural, technological, environmental and other factors to envision an array of possible futures. This change from a singular, prescribed “destiny” to multiple potential future scenarios allows all of us to consider desired outcomes. We can then set about the task of planning and working to achieve better tomorrows. “The Future - A Very Short Introduction” would be ideal for an advanced high school or college-level course on the subject.
5 people found this helpful
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TARIK GUNERSEL
5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read, among the first few, for anyone ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2017
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A must-read, among the first few, for anyone interested in the present-related future of our world. I think Gidley's insistence on the climate problem is a red alert; more Earthmates should be more efficient.
2 people found this helpful
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Chaz
2.0 out of 5 stars Jumps around, focuses on predictions that don't seem important
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2020
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One of the weakest Short Introduction books I've read
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Top reviews from other countries

Vans
5.0 out of 5 stars ok
Reviewed in Canada on October 7, 2021
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2024
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Really useful and interesting guide book. Gives a great sense of the futures and foresight 'terrain'. Very useful for those not academically trained at universities.
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Sumit M Dargan
5.0 out of 5 stars The future is here! A must read
Reviewed in India on April 4, 2019
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This book delves into a very interesting engagement into future...the only certainty in our lives.
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing entry in a great series
Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2018
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Disappointing condidering the obvious eminence of the author! Many papers are cited but little of consequence is presented. Possible developments and what might send us down one path as opposed to another are rarely discussed.
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Casimir May
5.0 out of 5 stars Futures thinking is far more than the art of prediction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2018
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This is definitely one of the most insightful book on futures thinking that I've read. It helpfully dismantles the idea that futures thinking is all about prediction and trend spotting, arguing that this is only one approach amongst many. It is also excellent at putting futures thinking into long-term historical context, for instance going back to theories of cyclical historical change in classical political thought, while also addressing key contemporary issues, such as whether futures thinking has become too dominated by neoliberalism and corporate interests. I also liked the way it engaged in ethical issues via concepts such as 'engaged foresight'. Gidley's interest in this moral perspective is captured in her definition of futures studies as 'the art and science of taking responsibility for the long-term consequences our our decisions and actions today.' This is just what we urgently need in our age of pathological short-termism that pervades politics, economics and digital life.
One person found this helpful
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