ABSTRACT
The future is uncertain and exploring uncertainties is one of the most difficult of all the planning processes. The Circles of Sustainability approach is concerned to build a sense of complexity and temporal awareness into any understanding of what is to be done in response to perceived issues of sustainability in the present. In this chapter, we set out the various steps of a basic but still sufficiently complex scenario projection process to open up real divergences. In the first stage of any scenario process, it is important to explore limits and uncertainties in order to ascertain the range of possibilities with which policy needs to deal. The second stage of the approach involves setting up a session to explore an aspirational future working backwards within the range of possibilities elucidated. The ground rules are also intended to minimize the risk of interpersonal challenge and conflict between participants.
