Framings in Indigenous futures thinking: barriers, opportunities, and innovations

Human societies face existential challenges on multiple fronts: climate change, biodiversity loss, altered biogeochemical flows, social unrest and injustices. Innovative solutions are needed to shift current trajectories towards a sustainable and just future. Futures thinking enables people to explo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability science Vol. 20; no. 2; pp. 613 - 633
Main Authors: Cheok, Jessica, van Velden, Julia, Fulton, Elizabeth A., Gordon, Iain J., Lyons, Ilisapeci, Peterson, Garry D., Wren, Liz, Hill, Rosemary
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.03.2025
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Biodiversity
Biodiversity loss
Climate change
Climate Change Management and Policy
Co-design
Concepts
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Futures
humans
Indigenising
Indigenous peoples
Innovation
Innovations
Knowledge Management for Sustainability Science
Landscape Ecology
lead
Literature reviews
Methodologies
Methodology
multicultural diversity
Native peoples
Public Health
Review Article
Scenarios
Stories
Sustainable Development
Terminology
Scenarios
Innovation
Methodologies
Stories
Futures
Indigenising
ISSN:1862-4065, 1862-4057, 1862-4057
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Human societies face existential challenges on multiple fronts: climate change, biodiversity loss, altered biogeochemical flows, social unrest and injustices. Innovative solutions are needed to shift current trajectories towards a sustainable and just future. Futures thinking enables people to explore and articulate alternative futures and find pathways towards their desired futures. Indigenous people have the potential to make significant contributions to futures thinking because of their distinctive perspectives: the viewpoint of already living in a post-apocalyptic world in the context of colonisation, unique knowledges, worldviews, and perspectives on time, as well as significant contributions to safeguarding biological and cultural diversity. A body of literature is emerging where Indigenous peoples contribute to and lead futures thinking approaches; however, this literature is diffuse and highly diverse in its approaches and terminology. Thus, we take an innovation-seeking and systematic approach to (1) identify patterns and processes in futures thinking with, for, and by Indigenous people; (2) highlight innovative approaches; (3) bring together diverse and sector-specific terminology; and (4) foreground emerging strengths and weaknesses. We identified four framings of Indigenous futures thinking: Adaptation oriented, Participatory, Culturally grounded, and Indigenising. Factors contributing to innovation include strong involvement of Indigenous people in the research team, co-design, and authorship, using Indigenous methodologies, cultural protocols, and explicitly employing decolonisation and trauma-informed approaches. We spotlight the challenges of conducting an exhaustive literature review in an emerging field with inconsistent terminology (e.g., capturing regions where Indigeneity is contested). We also create a living glossary of terms to aid other researchers and communities in using and refining the suite of methods identified here, with the aim of stimulating further innovations in this field.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:1862-4065
1862-4057
1862-4057
DOI:10.1007/s11625-024-01615-1