Why study futures? We live in an era marked by accelerated change, overlapping crises, and profound transitions. In this complex landscape, Futures Studies serves not to predict the future, but to illuminate the present, helping us make more informed decisions today, in light of tomorrow's possibilities. It's not about making predictions, but about learning to navigate uncertainty, made up of multiple and often unexpected scenarios. To navigate this, we need a new type of literacy: Futures Literacy, a key skill also promoted by UNESCO, which allows us to: imagine alternative and desirable futures, recognize our hidden assumptions and biases, build more resilient, flexible, and adaptive strategies.The course stems from these premises and is designed to introduce the foundations of anticipatory thinking, explore the major changes ahead (climate, technological, social), visualize collective futures through practical exercises, and train a long-term perspective, avoiding the usual vague and rhetorical visions ("more sustainability," "more efficiency") to instead work on concrete and transformative scenarios. Studying futures therefore means learning to use them as a lens on the present: every choice we make today is already a way of "using the future," often without realizing it, and this course helps us do so more consciously and creatively.

The main contents of the course will be: Foundations of Futures Studies: the difference between forecasting, strategic forecasting, and anticipation; an introduction to the main authors, approaches, and methodologies. Systems Thinking and Complexity: Tools for interpreting global changes (climate, technological, social, economic) as interconnected systems. Futures Literacy (UNESCO): Understanding the implicit assumptions that guide our decisions, imagining alternative futures, and using futures to innovate in the present. Practical methods and tools: Scenarios, triads of the future (weight of the past, drivers of the present, attractors of the future), backcasting, critical and creative imagination exercises. Applications to the urban, architectural, and energy context: How to use anticipation to design resilient, adaptive, and inclusive environments, cities, and systems. Workshops and exercises: Collective scenario building, weak signal analysis, and creation of narratives of possible and desirable futures, with a focus on challenges related to sustainability, artificial intelligence, and profound transitions.

Roberto Poli, Lavorare con il futuro, EGEA More readings suggested during the course

Lectures and a workshop will consist of developing a futures exercise on a topic chosen by the students. In particular, they will explore some methods specific to futures studies, including strategic interviews, the Wheel of Futures, the Triangle of Futures.

Written exam based on 20 multiple choice questions and analysis of the project/exercise completed during the course

This course explores topics closely related to one or more goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs). In particular, objective 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrstructure) e 11Sustainable cities and communities)