Social Visions of Future Sustainable Societies 419Alternative motivations are compatible with a diversity of social visions. Mul-
tiple visions encourage continuing clarification and communication, and contesta-
tion and critique of alternate futures; they also provide a forum for examining the
possible ramifications of present proposals, decisions and actions. For multiple
visions of alternative futures to flourish, it is necessary to bring diverse perspectives
to the table. People operating from different basic assumptions will tend to articu-
late a multiplicity of social visions; those with alternative views of the present will
tend to envision alternative futures. Only by such a multiplicity can there be real
choice, or even meaningful debate.
Envisioning Alternative Futures
We have asserted the desirability of an active and broad-based exploration of the
widest possible range of imaginable futures. In the context of global environment
and development concerns, the envisioning of alternative futures – and explora-
tion of their implications for peoples’ lived experience – is an essential component
of the hope for a sustainable world. Current processes of envisioning, the content
of visions and the political frame for both imaging and images are incapable of
creating a rich range of possible futures. Despite attempts at ‘backcasting’, as
reviewed in Robinson and Slocombe (1996) and Mulder and Biesiot (1998), the
modern approach to the future is symbolized by a technocratic and economic style
and a narrow focus to global models and formal futurism. Social institutions, proc-
esses of social change, and human values and aspirations are still rarely at centre
stage (but see Robinson et al, 1996a).
The reliance on a single approach to examining possible global futures – mod-
elling – has, in our view, promoted a narrowness and sterility in the imaging proc-
ess. Complementary or conflicting images – derived from anthropology, novels or
paintings, for example – have not yet become relevant to debates on global futures.
Despite the goal of some modellers to initiate public debate and stimulate action
(Rotmans and Dowlatabadi, 1998), current approaches have too often depicted
securing the planetary future as a management challenge properly addressed by
experts.
An urgent need exists to enrich this debate by expanding both the content and
the form of discussions about global futures. The process of envisioning and debat-
ing the future of the planet needs to be democratized and diversified, just as we
need emancipatory risk analysis. There is a need to expand the debate into every-
day life and to put everyday concerns on the agenda, but also for the discussion
itself to become a part of everyday life rather than the exclusive domain of special-
ists.
In the discussion to follow, we take the modest step of arguing for a broader
content in social visions, an expansion that necessitates much wider participation.
We argue for the legitimacy of multiple forms of communication, and use the