Shermon Cruz

The workshop Rethinking Education through Imagining Future Scenarios was organized by UNESCO Bangkok and the Faculty of Education, Department of Lifelong Learning, Chulalongkorn University, on 2-5 September 2015 at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok Thailand. The workshop was attended by a total of 40 participants which included non-formal education practitioners, UNESCO staff from Paris and Bangkok, and professors and graduate students from the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University… Mas marami pa

The workshop Rethinking Education through Imagining Future Scenarios was organized by UNESCO Bangkok and the Faculty of Education, Department of Lifelong Learning, Chulalongkorn University, on 2-5 September 2015 at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok Thailand. The workshop was attended by a total of 40 participants which included non-formal education practitioners, UNESCO staff from Paris and Bangkok, and professors and graduate students from the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University. Riel Miller of UNESCO Paris together with a team of international foresight experts namely Shermon Cruz, Director, Philippine Center for Foresight Education and Innovation Research, Northwestern University; Roumiana Gotseva, Managing Director, Centre for Strategic Foresight, Bulgaria; and Anita Sykes-Keller, Director, Designer Futures, Australia, facilitated the group activities. The objectives of the workshop were to introduce strategic foresight/ anticipatory thinking as a tool to rethink and transform education and learning; connect community-based learning and non-formal education practitioners and engage them in the exploration and construction of future scenarios for community-based learning and non-formal education; and generate new ideas, questions and perspectives on community-based learning and non-formal education. Mas kaunti

The Philippine Center for Foresight Education and Innovation Research (PhilForesight) of Northwestern University in collaboration with the World Futures Studies Federation and the UNSECO Participation Programme, Step Beyond Australia and the Center for Engaged Foresight held a two-day workshop entitled Transforming Philippine Cities: An Integrative Foresight Course for Women City Leaders, hosted by University of the Philippines (UNP) in Vigan City, Ilocos Norte, last June 26-27. 41… Mas marami pa

The Philippine Center for Foresight Education and Innovation Research (PhilForesight) of Northwestern University in collaboration with the World Futures Studies Federation and the UNSECO Participation Programme, Step Beyond Australia and the Center for Engaged Foresight held a two-day workshop entitled Transforming Philippine Cities: An Integrative Foresight Course for Women City Leaders, hosted by University of the Philippines (UNP) in Vigan City, Ilocos Norte, last June 26-27. 41 participants, mostly women, from local and national government agencies (LGUs, NEDA) as well as CSOs (Civil Service Organizations) and from the Academe attended the course. The futures course is one of the key events of the University of Northern Philippines 50th founding anniversary celebration. Mas kaunti

A storm is brewing in Asia, will Philippine cities transcend beyond the narrative of trauma and disasters? Is there an alternative future for Philippine cities or would it learn from the past to innovate, act and create the preferred story?

Are current strategies enough to transform our cities or do we need to question our assumptions now of continued economic growth and rethink our ways of knowing the city and change the way we imagine our cities and leadership from the big man rule –… Mas marami pa

A storm is brewing in Asia, will Philippine cities transcend beyond the narrative of trauma and disasters? Is there an alternative future for Philippine cities or would it learn from the past to innovate, act and create the preferred story?

Are current strategies enough to transform our cities or do we need to question our assumptions now of continued economic growth and rethink our ways of knowing the city and change the way we imagine our cities and leadership from the big man rule – autocratic, corrupt and isolated to the fresh food market – pluralistic, democratic and participatory?

These are some of the questions that the participants of the UNESCO Resilient Cities, Brighter Futures workshop explored for four days. Using anticipatory thinking and strategic foresight methods, city leaders and experts, researchers, managers, advocates, social scientists, futurists, and consultants from the different parts of the country and the world debated, deconstructed and reconstructed Philippine city futures in a Post-Haiyan era.

The Laoag forum workshop is a part of a broader global foresight project launched by UNESCO and the Rockefeller Foundation on futures literacy and introduce foresight to decision-making, public policy and governance. Mas kaunti

Knowledge creation is rapid fire and the world wants it now. The digitization and automation of knowledge content, creation and distribution is changing the way we perceive and perform research. Many scholars today continue to test and create emerging research approaches to question existing realities and alternative ways of knowing.

The mainstreaming of digital technologies, the emergence of alternative ways of knowing, peer to peer social innovations and the localization of content has… Mas marami pa

Knowledge creation is rapid fire and the world wants it now. The digitization and automation of knowledge content, creation and distribution is changing the way we perceive and perform research. Many scholars today continue to test and create emerging research approaches to question existing realities and alternative ways of knowing.

The mainstreaming of digital technologies, the emergence of alternative ways of knowing, peer to peer social innovations and the localization of content has intensified the debate that question existing theoretical and research methodologies’ and their applicability to local contexts and developing economies.

The inequality of access to knowledge, connectivity, the English bias and the hegemony of the North have, in so many ways, placed developing countries like the Philippines as recipients of their knowledge. This resulted to the inability of developing nations to create and internationalize local knowledge and content.

Today, the intensity of creating the knowledge society is getting more intense and researchers tend to collaborate using social media tools and emerging on-line research technologies to automate the gathering, circulation and diffusion of knowledge. These communities has prototyped a variety of emerging research practices and one amongst many are digital and futures research.

This seminar workshop aims to introduce emerging research approaches and methodologies to faculty and institutional researchers of Northwestern University.

It aims to “game” the process of learning alternative research approaches. Gaming here means making the process more interactive, re-creative and fun. It will immerse participants to the process of “creative and experiential questioning” and expose them to the process and context of futures research method particularly scenarios and causal layered analysis. Mas kaunti

As a foresight practitioner, I was able to spot a number of off the radar ideas, scenarios and was lucky to collect some “weak signals”, “emerging issues” and “trends” that matter and that might likely grow and impact Philippine society.

Envisioning the future is something that we all regularly do. We like to anticipate or forecast the future by creating models and scenarios rooted in the empirical and the critical. Our future outlook in most cases is shaped by our life perspectives, social contexts, and personal experiences.

This two day workshop will impart some of the most powerful exploratory devices, concepts, and strategies in strategic futures practice. It aims to capacitate individuals and organizations to… Mas marami pa

Envisioning the future is something that we all regularly do. We like to anticipate or forecast the future by creating models and scenarios rooted in the empirical and the critical. Our future outlook in most cases is shaped by our life perspectives, social contexts, and personal experiences.

This two day workshop will impart some of the most powerful exploratory devices, concepts, and strategies in strategic futures practice. It aims to capacitate individuals and organizations to explore many aspects of their future. The focus is to enable participants to design their own personal and institutional pathways and enhance their foresight capacities for adaptive response and strategic renewal in their organizations.

The Center for Engaged Foresight, De La Salle University Manila, Futures Evocative Australia and the Gogol Project collaborates and happy to invite everyone to join and learn from each other! Mas kaunti

Agrarian reform communities (ARC) face an uncertain future. Recent reports indicate that around 115 ARC all over the Philippines are facing threats from La Nina, drought, urbanization, migration, land issues due to inconsistent and unclear land policies, increasing poverty, etc. The gains that the CARP program had in the last twenty years are constantly being challenged by human (social, political, cultural and environmental) and nature-made (climate, weather) factors. Questions like what is… Mas marami pa

Agrarian reform communities (ARC) face an uncertain future. Recent reports indicate that around 115 ARC all over the Philippines are facing threats from La Nina, drought, urbanization, migration, land issues due to inconsistent and unclear land policies, increasing poverty, etc. The gains that the CARP program had in the last twenty years are constantly being challenged by human (social, political, cultural and environmental) and nature-made (climate, weather) factors. Questions like what is the future of agrarian reform communities considering these threats? and what is the impact of the CARP expiration to ARC communities? are some of the big questions emerging in a post-CARP Philippine agrarian decade.

This workshop aims to introduce long-term thinking and social foresight tools and techniques to municipal agrarian reform officers, project managers, development specialists and community leaders of the Department of Agrarian Reform of the province of Ilocos Norte. The purpose is to enable participants and ARC beneficiaries to explore, anticipate and negotiate possible futures. Mas kaunti

Recent reports and emerging trends suggest an increasing significance of indigineity to culture, development and foresight processes. The impact of indigenous communities and cultures are transforming and expanding socio-political and economic opportunities in “first peoples” nations and societies.

The indigenous culture and the future that was narrowed down by the flattening of the world has re-emerged with greater audibility in the national and global arenas. Their voices, their… Mas marami pa

Recent reports and emerging trends suggest an increasing significance of indigineity to culture, development and foresight processes. The impact of indigenous communities and cultures are transforming and expanding socio-political and economic opportunities in “first peoples” nations and societies.

The indigenous culture and the future that was narrowed down by the flattening of the world has re-emerged with greater audibility in the national and global arenas. Their voices, their images, their worldviews and myths continue to influence how people and societies create alternative images of the future.

The indigenous foresight workshop will impart futures thinking and social foresight methods to the indigenous community of Sarangani to explore and create alternative futures. Mas kaunti

Strategic Foresight enables a deepened understanding of the landscape of potential changes, that allows proactive and flexible responses, innovations and strategies in the face of uncertainty and rapid change.

This two day workshop will impart key concepts, methods and organizational strategies in strategic foresight that will enable participants to begin building practices for strategic renewal, adaptive response and purposeful direction setting in their organizations.

The 7th Sunrise Festival dubbed as Ylocosining: Hidden Treasures of the North was celebrated in the province of Ilocos Norte last year. From Nov. 24-28, the fest was held in five different venues namely Badoc, San Nicolas, Pagudpud and the cities of Laoag and Batac.