Gh. Behroozi Lak; M. R. Jalilvand
Abstract
Futures Studies are transdiciplinary research field that explain social phenomena and change processes, and provide a broader perspective on them. Further, it develops various fields of human activity. Futures studies thematic territory is all sectors of culture, economics, politics, technology and the ...
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Futures Studies are transdiciplinary research field that explain social phenomena and change processes, and provide a broader perspective on them. Further, it develops various fields of human activity. Futures studies thematic territory is all sectors of culture, economics, politics, technology and the arts, and in the view of the changes ahead, its topics are rising. It is believed that human societies are able not to control the future, but the future is able to influence the path of history. I this study, we reviewed books and papers published in futures studies to illustrate American sutures studies movement in 1960s and 1970s. We start with World War II and Cold War. Then, organizations and future thinkers affecting futures studies would be discussed. Finally, the paradigms that have formed after World War II and the Cold War in the field of futures studies would be defined. Generally, futurists believe that so far there have been two paradigms in the evolution of futures studies and there are signs of the emergence of a new paradigm.
Mahdi FatehRad; Reza Jalilvand; MohammadMahdi Mowlaei; Saeid Samiie; Leila Nasrolahi Vasati
Abstract
Futures research is transdisciplinary knowledge to understand the changes and futures. In the context of interdisciplinary methodology, current study reviews the paradigms of futures studies referring to typology of Joseph Voros and introduces five research paradigms including Positivism, Post-positivism, ...
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Futures research is transdisciplinary knowledge to understand the changes and futures. In the context of interdisciplinary methodology, current study reviews the paradigms of futures studies referring to typology of Joseph Voros and introduces five research paradigms including Positivism, Post-positivism, Criticalism, Constructivism and Participatory. The differences and similarities of these paradigms in the levels of anthology, epistemology, and methodology would be discussed and then, characteristics of each paradigm in terms of research purpose, status of researcher, nature of knowledge, and accumulated knowledge would be argued. In the next step, the main techniques and methods of futures studies such Trend Impact Analysis, Delphi, Scenarios, Causal Layered Analysis, and etc. are discussed. Further, we try to identify the status of each technique and method in the five mentioned methodologies. Finally, we introduce Integral futures approach as a newest methodology in futures studies to consider how this meta-paradigm is used in the area of futures studies.
Mahdi Fatehrad; Mohammad Reza Jalilvand; Monireh Mohammadzade
Abstract
Purpose, although literature has focused on explaining theoretical background in the area of interdisciplinary studies, a few empirical studies has paid attention to the main reasons of performing interdisciplinary projects. To fill the research gap, current study tries to identify challenges and motivations ...
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Purpose, although literature has focused on explaining theoretical background in the area of interdisciplinary studies, a few empirical studies has paid attention to the main reasons of performing interdisciplinary projects. To fill the research gap, current study tries to identify challenges and motivations of interdisciplinary studies for researchers to participate in interdisciplinary projects. The main purposes of the research are: 1) identifying the challenges and motivations of interdisciplinary studies implying on interdisciplinary methodology, 2) determining the degree of importance of the above elements regarding interdisciplinary studies. Methodology, current study is an exploratory in terms of methodology, descriptive in terms of research design, and development in terms of purpose. This study employing an interdisciplinary team firstly investigated theoretical background and prior research on interdisciplinary studies, identified challenges and motivations of the studies. Secondly, a structured interview performed with five interdisciplinary researchers. To investigate the identified elements empirically, a self-administrated questionnaire was used based on the literature and interviews. The questionnaire was distributed among 64 researchers from different disciplines who had experienced interdisciplinary activities. Data was analyzed by confirmatory factor analysis, composite reliability, one-sample t-test, Friedman test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) using LISREL and SPSS. Results indicated that recognized motivations except for public learning and satisfying psychological needs, and identified challenges have considerable effect on performing interdisciplinary studies.
