Unsettling the Coloniality of Foresight
The practice of foresight is not neutral. It is conditioned by society’s cultural values, its economic systems, and its capacity for collective imagination. Pursuing rigid frames of progress forces people to bend their choices, their perspectives, and their sense of selves to fit those rigid frames, and therefore reduce the breadth of their collective humanity to templates that are designed and understood by a privileged few.
This chapter discusses the practice of decoloniality in foresight that interrogates and repairs the deep systemic levels of oppressions that have marginalised and minoritised so many. It requires a consideration of justice in the governance of futures so that we are not locking those that are excluded from these conversations into future indebtedness or inequity. It ensures the responsibilities of intended and unintended consequences of actions in the short and long term are embedded in design, decision-making and governance processes.
