Bibliography

Methodological foundations

Grounded in Erich Jantsch’s concept of integrative forecasting, LIFT enables organisations to fuse diverse sources, analytical methods, and human interpretation into one coherent foresight workflow.  

  • Integrative forecasting – developed by Erich Jantsch (1967), Austrian systems theorist. 
  • STEEP analysis (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political) – coined in foresight practice in the 1960s/70s; further systematised by Francis Aguilar (Harvard, 1967 Scanning the Business Environment).
  • Scenario planning – refined and popularised at Royal Dutch Shell in the 1970s (notably by Pierre Wack).
  • Three Horizons framework – created by Bill Sharpe and colleagues at International Futures Forum (early 2000s).
  • Delphi method – developed at RAND Corporation in the 1950s by Olaf Helmer, Norman Dalkey, and Nicholas Rescher. (While LIFT is not running classic Delphi rounds, the principle of structured, traceable expert validation is close to what we’re doing)
  • Horizon scanning – formalised in policy foresight by UK Government Office for Science in the early 2000s, but with academic roots in environmental scanning from Aguilar (1967).

Literature

Alongside methodological foundations, we have drawn on selected futures literature that shaped our thinking and supported the development of LIFT. These works provided both practical guidance and broader perspectives on how to make foresight accessible and actionable.

  • How to Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange, Scott Smith & Madeline Ashby (2020).
  • Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming, Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby
  • The Future: A Very Short Introduction, Jennifer M. Gidley  (2017).
  • Byung-Chul Han - The Spirit of Hope (2025)
  • Beyond Speculative Design: Past – Present – Future Ivica Mitrović, James Auger, Julian Hanna, Ingi Helgason  2021 
  • FUTURES STUDIES - From individual to social capacity - Richard A Slaughter (1996)
  • Webfare: A Manifesto for Digital Well-Being,  Maurizio Ferraris  (2025)
  • The Story of Futures Studies: An Interdisciplinary Field Rooted in Social Sciences, Kristóf, Tamás, and Erzsébet Nováky. (2023)
  • Sensemaking: What Makes Human Intelligence Essential in the Age of the Algorithm,  Christian Madsbjerg
  • Thinking in Systems, Donella H. Meadows

    Back to homepage