Overview

Integral Foresight (IF) emerged partly from the view that previous approaches in Futures Studies (FS) had overlooked ‘half of reality.’ That is, they had been mainly preoccupied with the external world of measurable phenomena such as trends, events and processes of various kinds. What was widely overlooked, however, is that, in most cases, interior factors (such as political power, social interests, values, worldviews and perspectives) permeated the external world and, in so doing, shaped and conditioned it in countless, often under-regarded, ways.

Insights from the world’s wisdom traditions began to resonate with more recent traditions of enquiry such as post-modernism, critical theory, social construction, hermeneutics, transpersonal and stage development psychology, all of which served to reveal new and renewed ways of understanding the world.

It then took the genius of meta-theorist Ken Wilber to weave a more productive and inclusive method that draws on both sets of knowledge, interior and exterior to fashion what was half-humorously dubbed ‘a theory of everything.’ Integral theory, as it became known, was then taken up by many people who then re-visioned their existing disciplines and perspective in the light of this newly inclusive and empowering ‘map.’

This book provides a concise introduction to the way that they author responded to these wider influences and sought to explore the implications for FS.