In order to trigger people to think about the future from a variety of perspectives, futurists often use the mnemonic acronym steep, which stands for: socio-cultural, technological, economic, ecological, political. A slightly less well known alternative is ‘pinchastem‘, which stands for political / governmental, information / communication / media, nature-related / macro-environmental, conflict, health / biological / micro-environmental, artistic / cultural / recreational, social, technological / electronic / mechanical, economic, moral / ethical / religious.

Last year, the foresight department of the British global design and engineering firm Arup, published a deck of inspirational cards, meant to inspire people to assess how certain developments might change their future. The cards deal with major drivers of change that are likely to alter the face of business in the coming 50 years (time-horizon 2050). They are divided into five subsets, each dealing with a different ‘steep’ category.

Related posts:

1. climate change response scenarios
2. maps to change the world
3. play for change

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 16:24 and is filed under business, foresight, future, methods & techniques, publication, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.