Citizens' views of Australia's future to 2050.pdf (1.58 MB)
Citizens' views of Australia's future to 2050
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 07:59 authored by Boschetti, F, Elizabeth FultonElizabeth Fulton, Grigg, NJIn four focus group exercises involving both forecasting and backcasting approaches, we gave approximately 100 Australian citizens the opportunity to discuss likely, desirable and feared futures to 2050. The image they paint is both coherent and consistent. Education, governance, personal attitudes and societal trends, rather than specific events, are drivers of a future which is perceived as being largely shaped by human choices. Innovation is believed to be more necessary in novel social arrangements than in further technology. The most feared futures arise from an amplification of trends already at play in the present: economic growth at the expense of the environment and quality of life, lack of equity, poor government, corporate greed, commercialism and erosion of social values. Economic and material growth does not feature in the most desired futures which are local, inclusive, peaceful, equitable and in some cases frugal. The visions and scenarios developed find a place within established foresight frameworks and global political narratives, but seem to lie at the fringe of current media and short-term political discourse. These results should not be interpreted as representative of the overall Australian population, but suggest that extending the analysis to the broader community could provide significant insights and enrich the discussion of important societal choices.
History
Publication title
SustainabilityVolume
7Pagination
222-247ISSN
2071-1050Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic StudiesPublisher
MDPI AGPlace of publication
SwitzerlandRights statement
Copyright 2014 the Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Repository Status
- Open