Case title
Agile futures for transformative change: Lessons from envisioning positive climate futures emerging from the pandemic in Ontario
Crises like the pandemic may create windows of opportunity for transformative change, such as the systemic change required to address the climate crisis. Can futuring help capture this opportunity?
We aimed to create a transformative space that builds inspiration and shared commitment for climate action while exploring the unique inflection point created by the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, we constructed a creative participatory futuring process for participants involved in climate action in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region (Canada) to imagine desirable futures emerging from the crisis. Because we needed to move quickly and accommodate pandemic-related constraints to explore this unique moment in time, we also aimed to reflect on considerations for an agile futures practice in service of transformative change.
Through a virtual workshop and surveys, participants envisioned future worlds in which “seeds” of positive climate futures emerging during COVID-19 become mainstream. They wrote science fiction stories of characters navigating those worlds. Observing artists depicted the futures through visual art. Participants were inspired and learned a new tool to capture opportunity in crisis.
The scenarios were made in:
2020
The scenarios look out to:
2072
Project facts
Canada
Ontario
2020
Submitted by:
Anita Lazurko
Project leader
November 24, 2022
How to cite this page:
Anita Lazurko
Agile futures for transformative change: Lessons from envisioning positive climate futures emerging from the pandemic in Ontario
11/24/2022
Resources
Lazurko, A., & Keys, P. (2022). A call for agile futures practice in service of transformative change: Lessons from envisioning positive climate futures emerging from the pandemic. Ecology and Society, 27(3):10.
Project images
Andrea Filiatrault
