With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Foresight Alliance recently completed an 18-month research project on the global future of work and workers. Our report,The Futures of Work, is intended to help the philanthropic and development communities understand and address the challenges that poor and vulnerable workers may meet going forward. But the changing nature of work…
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We’ve spent much of the last year looking at the future of work. For me that study raises a further question: What’s the future of the meaning of work? Turns out that the TED Radio Hour recently did a series of presentations on The Meaning of Work. Barry Schwartz, Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore College,…
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Lately I’ve been wondering if the future of work in the developed world and the future of work in the developing world are converging in some important ways. Let me explain by introducing a fascinating scenario for the future of innovation in Africa. In 2013 the Open A.I.R. project (Open African Innovation, Research, and Training)…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. A scholar at Brookings Institution discusses how the emerging markets of Asia might avoid the “middle-income trap” that could keep them from becoming wealthy. A new study found that “Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults.” Direct interactions with…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. A group of DIY biologist and entrepreneurs are attempting to develop plants that glow, in research to be conducted in a citizen biotech lab and funded by Kickstarter. The plants might eventually serve as useful light sources; in the shorter term…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. According to the Hamilton Project’s Jobs Gap calculator, at the current pace of jobs growth, the US economy will not achieve 2008 levels of employment until 2020. On April 15 the US Supreme Court heard arguments on whether patents owned by…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Fifty-nine percent of Americans are afraid of falling out of their current economic class, a poll finds. In this video interview, Dr. Susan Katz, a retired pediatrician and biochemist, discusses new research on “obesogens”–chemicals that may promote weight gain in humans and…
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Here are five indicators, observations or articles that caught the eye of FA futurists today. Steve Waldman hypothesizes that the moribund economies of World 1 have fallen prey to a technology-driven resource curse. Elite access to finance capital and technology is becoming increasingly monopolized, impeding the re-distribution of economic resources to non-elites. According to Packaging World, waste-to-energy…
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Tiny houses are an American tradition, dating back to the 150sf cabin where Thoreau wrote his masterpiece on simple living. Now they’re back in vogue, driven by foreclosure woes, boomers downsizing, and eco-consciousness. According to an interesting update in the New Haven Advocate, at least two consulting firms—Rightsize by Design and Tumbleweed Tiny House Company—now…
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As a futurist, I’m amused when people say ‘no one could have predicted that’. I’m currently spending time in Bulgaria. A week in, I notice things that soon will stop registering in my consciousness as the novelty of the experience wears off. My old neighbourhood has changed quite a bit, in a good way.…
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