Futures studies · Philosophy of science · Foresight
I study what could happen, how we can think about it, and why it matters.
I am a Senior Researcher at the Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, and Docent in Philosophy of Science. My work moves between futures studies, philosophy of science, historiography, and applied foresight. I develop concepts and methods for studying possible futures of work, science, universities, narratives, and historical alternatives.
Research Radar
The Research Radar is a selective reading page for high-quality work around futures studies, Delphi, narrative foresight, futures of work, university futures, philosophy of science, historiography, counterfactuals, and related fields. It starts from references already close to my research and can later be supported by strict weekly scanning.
Open Research RadarA way through the work
My research asks how futures become thinkable. This means studying methods such as Delphi, scenario work, narrative foresight, horizon scanning, and Causal Layered Analysis, but also the philosophical assumptions behind them.
The same question appears in several directions: futures of work, futures of science, futures of universities, philosophy of historiography, and counterfactual reasoning. The topics look different, but they share a concern with possibility, explanation, time, and the conditions under which alternatives can be seen.
Not only technical examples
The work is academic, but examples can also come from The Shining, It’s a Wonderful Life, Bob Dylan, rap, and sports. They make questions of narrative, timing, pressure, failure, and possibility easier to see.
Songs, films, sayings
A place for lines from songs, films, and public culture that can irritate, sharpen, or humble foresight talk. The point is not quotation collecting; the point is commentary.
“Don’t need a weatherman to know … way the wind blows”
Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” on Bringing It All Back Home, Columbia Records, 1965. Written by Bob Dylan.
If so, and if foresight people think they are weathermen, oh my gosh. Can one argue with that really? The useful question is what foresight adds when the wind is already felt: Do we need to accept it and reveal those who still listen to weathermen; ask them to look in the mirror?
Methods and concepts
Dialectic Delphi is a method I have developed for working with opposed futures. It places different directions side by side, so that probability, desirability, arguments, tensions, and trade-offs can be studied together.
One part of my work treats futures less like a single road and more like a conceptual space. We can ask where a work arrangement, a university, or a scientific practice is located, what dimensions shape it, and what kinds of movement are possible.
A narrative of the future is not only a story to communicate a scenario. It can be worked with. Episodes can be added, and these episodes can make different branches visible.
The other tools still rest on careful scanning of high-quality papers, books, and reports. In many projects this means reading across hundreds of serious sources, so that the concepts and methods do not stand on thin trend lists.
Arguments
I think Delphi is often too quickly understood as a method that tries to make people agree. In futures research, disagreement can be useful because it shows tensions, trade-offs, and different meanings inside the same future issue.
Read moreFuture work should not be reduced to guesses about exact jobs. The deeper issue is how work is arranged: where it happens, how it is measured, and how technology, place, organisations, and life outside work are connected.
Read moreNarratives matter because they connect large changes with human experience. They can make futures more concrete without making them look like predictions.
Read moreWhere the work appears
The publication list gives the formal record. The work also appears in reports, stakeholder work, presentations, interviews, and public discussion. The important point is the nature of the work: careful arguments, frameworks, and methods that travel between futures studies, philosophy, and historiography.
Articles and chapters where futures studies, philosophy of science, historiography, and counterfactual thinking are developed through careful conceptual work.
Long-form work on causal explanation, knowledge, futures of work, and conceptual tools that make complex research areas easier to discuss.
I regularly present the work in academic and professional settings, take part in interviews, and join stakeholder discussions, including keynote speaking.
Dialectic Delphi, narratives-with-branches, futures as space, CLA extensions, and philosophical analysis used to make futures research more reflective.
Selected work