The term “national conversation” seems to be gaining traction as a desirable activity where people talk with one another at a national scale about matters of national concern—the United States talking about the security state, for instance, or Australia calling for discussions on population, the structure of future economies, and attitudes towards people seeking asylum. […]
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Seeing Through a Glass Darkly
Where there is no vision, the people perish. —Proverbs 29:18 Soon after I moved to Oberlin in 1990, a battle-scarred veteran of local politics told me “son, you gotta understand one thing about this town . . . If you put all Oberlinians in a burning building, they could not agree on how to get […]
Imagining a World of Full, Fair, and Gratifying Employment for Quality Life and a Livable Earth
The following is an excerpt from commencement remarks made by Ms. Rosa Rodrigues, who served four years as Chief of Staff to President Delores Hernandez (2033–2041). Looking back over the last 28 years, it is amazing how much has changed, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Back in 2014, despite continuing […]
Energy Security as a "Wicked Problem"—A Foresight Approach to Developing a Grand Strategy for Resilience
Many definitions of energy security have been proposed in the literature, each developed from within a particular set of perspectives. The International Energy Agency (IEA) defines energy security as the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at affordable prices. This broad, commonly used definition primarily emphasizes economic security. Daniel Yergin states that the objective of energy […]
Work and Opportunity in the Human Service Society
After her commencement remarks at the University for International Leadership and Conflict Resolution (UILCR) in Spring 2043, several of the graduates wrote Ms. Rodrigues to ask her to elaborate on how work and employment had changed from the early decades of the 21st century to the present. We remind readers that Ms. Rosa Rodrigues served […]
Changes on the Horizon for Women's Economic Equality in MENA
In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), women have made progress toward establishing equal access to economic opportunities, especially with regard to access to education. Over the past decade, MENA governments have invested about 5.3 percent of their GDP in education—the highest percentage in the world.1 A 2007 report by the World Bank called […]
Decarbonization of Cities: You’re Dreaming!
Societal and technological transformation in the face of climate change will be won or lost in our cities and urban communities. This is not just because of the global urban demographic shift with more than 50 percent of the population now living in urban conditions, or because cities contribute around 70 to 80 percent of […]
Civic Populism: The People's Politics of Geno Baroni
I am honored today, October 24, 2030, to be chosen as storyteller by the Smithsonian Institution’s Council of American Peoples at the opening of the Geno Baroni Center for Democracy, a satellite institution of the Smithsonian in Acosta, Pennsylvania. Geno Baroni was born here 100 years ago, on October 24, 1930, as the son of […]
Looking Back Through the Glass Darkly
The changes began to appear in the final two quarters of 2014. By mid-2015, the movement to increase access to health insurance seemed established enough to appear to be a trend. Some of these developments were publicly reported: percentage of lives covered overall, numbers accessing coverage through the exchanges, and trends that seemed to indicate […]
Why We Need to Envision Positive Futures
An eternal trait of men is the need for vision and readiness to follow it; and if men are not given the right vision, they will follow wandering fires. – Sir Richard Livingstone Where there is no vision, the people perish. – Proverbs 29:18 One cannot construct what one cannot image. – Lawrence Goodwyn To […]