Special Interest Group on Futures
The Copernicus Special Interest Group on Futures (Futures SIG) is a collaborative working group focused on exploring and advancing future-related practices. We aim to bring together existing approaches to studying the future while also developing new methods, theories, and perspectives. Our focus extends beyond practices explicitly labelled as "futures research" to include those not yet formally defined as such. The SIG serves as a platform for discussion, enabling researchers at the Copernicus Institute to collectively build expertise through knowledge sharing and interdisciplinary collaboration on joint publications, projects, and funding initiatives.
We focus on these questions:
- What are common and existing practices around exploring the future at Copernicus?
- What exciting new methods, practices, theories and perspectives are Copernicus colleagues investigating or experimenting with that we should know about?
- How can we understand dominant and alternative images and narratives of the future around sustainability issues in society? How does the Copernicus Institute relate to them?
- What cutting edge and alternative approaches to engaging with the future exist that are not currently being used at the Copernicus Institute, and how could they be valuable for us?
The SIG hosts regular meetings with its core members and organizes events featuring external speakers, open to all members of the Copernicus Institute and Utrecht University (UU). If you're interested in joining or learning more, please contact Joost Vervoort (j.m.vervoort@uu.nl).