Qualitative Futures Research: expanding the temporalities of engaged scholarship
It is increasingly proposed by international organisations that we are experiencing polycrisis, where multiple crises (e.g. economic, climate, geopolitical and technological) converge and lead to deep concerns about futures. In response, there is growing attention to forecasting and foresighting. But where is qualitative futures research?
In this lecture I propose a new movement in qualitative research approaches to investigating, interpreting and understanding possible futures, to enable new layers of qualitative knowledge and ways of knowing in anticipatory, speculative and experimental modes. I briefly explore the layers of knowledge forecasting and foresighting offer, and compare these with that offered by rigorous qualitative inquiry. I then discuss what it means to do futures-focused qualitative research, the status of the knowledge that we can produce and the possible roles of emerging technologies in this endeavour. I then offer a series of examples of methods for investigating and communicating futures knowledge, drawing on ethnographic, design and documentary practice.
Finally, I reflect on the potential outcomes of bringing qualitative knowing into dialogue with forecast and foresight.
Sarah Pink (PhD, PhD h.c x2, FASSA) is an award winning futures anthropologist and documentary filmmaker. Sarah is Laureate Professor and Director of the Emerging Technologies Research Lab and FUTURES Hub at Monash University. Prior to this she was RMIT Distinguished Professor and Director of the Digital Ethnography Centre at RMIT University. Sarah has published widely in the field of qualitative inquiry, including her Doing Visual Ethnography (2021, 4th edition), Doing Sensory Ethnography (2015 2nd edition) and the co-authored Digital Ethnography (2016) and Design Ethnography (2022). Her recent documentaries include Smart Homes for Seniors (2021) and Digital Energy Futures (2022).