Editorial

Citation

Ozcan Saritas, D. (2012), "Editorial", Foresight, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/fs.2012.27314aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: foresight, Volume 14, Issue 1

We completed the thirteenth year of the foresight journal with an outstanding performance – proof that 13 is actually not an unlucky number! During these past 13 years foresight has continued to feature long-term orientation, has examined uncertainties and complexities in social, technological, economic, ecological, political and value systems, and has drawn on widely distributed knowledge with greater links to action and wider participation. The journal has paid special attention to formal techniques and methods as valuable ways of structuring and stimulating more creative, interactive and evidence-based idea generation and processing and has aimed to demonstrate the best practice in the design and implementation of foresight methodology and the combination and use of quantitative and qualitative methods.

foresight has also covered the applications of future studies and foresight at the supra-national, national, regional and sectoral levels in a wide variety of sectoral areas such as automotive, transportation, IT, textiles and tourism, as well as thematic areas such as sustainable development, water use, demographical change, female entrepreneurship, and crime prevention. In this way, the journal has made substantial contributions to policy learning and policy transfer processes.

By reporting a wide variety of outputs, including sectoral analysis, critical technology lists, priorities and policy recommendations, scenarios and outcomes such as the formation of new networks, mutual learning, articulation of widely-shared or divergent visions, new collaborations and working communities, foresight functions as an important outlet for the dissemination of findings of foresight exercises to wider social constituents. Over the past 13 years, quality, relevancy and timeliness have been the top three criteria for the selection of papers in foresight. The journal has attracted good-quality articles from the well-established scholars and young, enthusiastic researchers with cutting-edge ideas in the field. We aim to increase the relevancy of the journal by pushing the traditional boundaries of the field (i.e. methodologies and their applications) towards more technologically, economically and socially oriented issues. We aim to create a multi-disciplinary audience by taking into account different age, gender and social groups and introduce a more critical perspective to reflect the views of wider layers of society regarding future-oriented issues. We also observe the world and its changes (such as increasing concerns regarding sustainability, globalisation, development of service economies, rise of BRIC economies), and ensure that the papers published in the journal remain in line with these developments and suggest novel perspectives, whilst opening new horizons and setting new policy and research agendas.

In 2011 foresight also published three well-received special issues entitled “Is Africa the land of the future?”, “Disruptive technological innovations” and “YIRCof ’09 Methodological Issues”, which includes papers from the 2009 Yeditepe International Research Conference on Foresight. The journal has commissioned a number of special issues for 2012 on subjects including the impacts of foresight; the future roles of services in the knowledge-based economies; and horizon scanning.

We are currently appointing Regional Editors from around the world, who can help to provide the journal with a broader geographic coverage, more relevance with the other regions of the world and remit through sourcing papers specifically from their region. An international journal like foresight should be able to attract papers about and from all of the countries of the world where research and teaching in the subject area is taking place. We believe that recruiting Regional Editors can help to both achieve and consolidate this.

Two years ago we appointed a North American Regional Editor, Jay Gary from The University of Regent, USA. We would also like to take the opportunity to welcome our two new Regional Editors for Russia, Professor Leonid Gokhberg and Professor Alexander Sokolov of the Higher School of Economics, National Research University, Moscow. Professor Gokhberg is also the Editor for the Russian Foresight journal and we hope to work together to strengthen the position of both journals in the fields of foresight and future technologies. We are currently in the process of appointing an African Regional Editor. The other regions of the world will also be covered in the near future.

As always, we welcome your feedback, views and involvement in the journal. If you have any suggestions for the journal then please do get in touch.

Best wishes,

Dr Ozcan SaritasEditor, foresightE-mail: osaritas@emeraldinsight.com