Lifestyle NW - Introduction
Exploring hopes, fears, trends and surprises
What might people get?
A 'scenario' is a structured description of possible future conditions and trends. The development of scenarios in 'sets' is a way of mapping out future trends, risks, opportunities and alternatives.
For instance, if the UK Climate Impacts Programme provides scenarios for future weather conditions, we can then plan for the future in agriculture, tourism etc. The structured description of alternative futures through 'scenarios' is a powerful policy tool for strategic intelligence.
This scenario process can work best if it goes beyond the 'technocrat' world, i.e. if it looks at underlying trends, subliminal signals, hidden causes etc. The 2nd cartoon shows how scenarios can be at the same time:
- Stories about the future
- Models, which look at the technical side
- Images, which can tell more than stories
- Visions, illuminating hopes and fears
Even more than the NW Quest module, this Future visions module does not attempt to 'predict' the future of the region. It does aim to show 'what if', in conjunction with debates, discussions, stories, maps, images etc, as elsewhere on this site.
The scenario material following is based on the NW regional experiences of the EU project 'Visions for a Sustainable Europe' based at CURE:
www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/research/cure/projects/completed/visionsNW
