Foresight: Fifty Years to Think Your Futures

Foresight started with the notion of (Science and) Technology Foresight as a part of Technology Assessment (TA) but is now an independent scientific area. For a long time, Foresight mainly aimed at detecting determined futures but has developed into different directions under different headings. Most processes make use of a combination of methods to explore and develop different possible, probable or desirable futures. Foresight is more and more embedded in different institutions. There, it is carried out together with clients, and serves their specific purposes in the preparation of decision-making or science, technology and innovation policies. It offers the space to bring the different actors in the respective innovation system together. Foresight concepts are more and more accepted, and the results are distributed and used - in companies, ministries, associations, NGOs or the European Commission. Our contribution describes how Foresight has changed during the last 50 years and explains some of the aspects researchers have addressed. We conclude by highlighting two crosscutting emerging dimensions of change in Foresight, i.e. the engagement with transformative, mission-oriented agendas and the meaningful integration of machine-based approaches. Foresighters have to be aware that not only the results of their projects change but also the methods and the actors who work with them.