Assessing the meaning of the long term in strategic and environmental research.
The future has become a key concept in the social sciences in the wake of global challenges related to climate change and other long term concerns. Yet, while the future appears to be a central concern in strategic research and in environmental social sciences, it is rarely made clear what this future refers to, nor the normative and epistemological problems that studying the long term may carry.
We did in this project undertake a historically oriented study of the evolution of key future concepts and theoretical and methodological directions in long term research since the 1970s.
In another study we analyzed how the future is mobilized in contemporary environmental social research in Sweden and the way that this field constructs long term challenges, produces future scenarios and attempts to structure action for the long term.
We used textual analysis and interview, and together the studies provided a crucial contribution to our understandings of the knowledge processes involved in constructing long term challenges. This is tremendously important in an era when the environmental challenges are expected to affect the lives of all citizens and when uncertainties and risks are central to both future oriented research and public debates concerning the future.