Bio
Founder and director of Periscopi de prospectiva i estratègia, a Barcelona (Spain) futures consultancy firm, Jordi Serra has a long career as futurist. He is also the responsible of a Foresight research line (Prospectirisc) at the Centre in Risk Governance Research (GRISC) within the Barcelona Autonomous University.
He is World Futures Studies Federation fellow and, at present time, Vice-president of its Iberoamerican Chapter. He is also associated fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science and member of Futures international editorial Board.
He has provided assessment in futures studies, prospective, intelligence and strategic planning to different organizations including several governments and private corporations. He has published numerous books and articles in Catalan, Spanish and English.
Course : Science Fiction and the Future
Science fiction (SF) is one of the major sources for images of the future; explicitly or implicitly, our conception of the future is heavily shaped by SF. More to the point, SF has been a sort of unwanted companion for futures studies, sometimes futures has relied on SF works to explain which kind of futures it was referring to; while others SF has done some damage reinforcing images that have been misleading or wrong. This course will analyze how some central concepts for futures studies have been deeply influenced by SF.
This course aims to offer insight regarding one basic question: Up to which point it is legitimate for futures studies to use SF?
Course : Future Scenarios
Wendell Bell stated that scenarios give “methodological unity to futures studies” as the are “by far the most widely shared methodological tool of the futures field.” And even though there is a great deal of confusion about them: Are they a method or a product? Should they be considered in singular or in plural? Is there a right way to make them? Or are there any criteria to judge them? This course aims to discuss these issues in order to provide some insight in the matter.
In the first place, to determine what is a scenario and which features it should fulfil. Secondly, to examine different kinds of scenarios and, also, some methods or procedures to generate them.
