ABSTRACT
Until recently the dominant futures project was essentially an expression of a late-modern outlook founded on notions of prediction, forecasting and control. While other ‘layers’ of futures work, other traditions and ways of knowing were always available, the framing of Futures Studies (FS) occurred out of a broadly reductionist framework-what Wilber calls ‘flatland’. As we have seen, this meant that current ideologies-economic growth, nature as a resource, cultural hegemony etc.—were insufficiently problematized and seen as natural. Sterile, machine-led, notions of the future remained dominant in popular culture and official thinking alike. Hence, there seemed to be no possibility of a break with the past; the future was essentially ‘more of the same’. For some time FS has needed a wider, richer view. This chapter explores how the work of Ken Wilber contributes to a broadening and deepening of FS. It suggests how the latter can shift its focus beyond the maintenance of the status quo within a taken-for-granted worldview.
