ABSTRACT
One approach is being tried in the nation's heartland, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since 1980, citizens of the four-county metropolitan area have been developing Goals for Greater Milwaukee 2000. Even the more sophisticated leaders of Goals for Greater Milwaukee 2000 tend to be entrenched in the assumptions and paradigms of the present and recent past. Utilizing sharply contrasting perspectives on the future, and discounting the disaster scenarios of nuclear war or other catastrophic possibilities, we hypothesized several broad scenarios for greater Milwaukee toward the year 2000. The shrinkage scenario holds that the economy is experiencing a long-term downturn and that people should accept this trend and prepares to cope with the consequences. The stabilization scenario holds that the pace of shrinkage will be reversed and that the quality of life will remain approximately as it has been in the good years of the recent past.
