Introduction

Future Backwards (FB) is a particularly useful / agile approach for using during TTDR processes with social actors / stakeholders, because this approach was intentionally created to aid in widening the range of perspectives a group of people can take on understanding their past and the possibilities of their future. The entrained perspectives of both researchers and stakeholders within the research process may give them a limited view of what can actually be achieved in the present, and such entrained patterns of past perception can determine its future. As a workshop tool the Future Backwards method can be used to co-generate new insights and understandings of the next step(s) forwards or sideways, away from an undesirable / unsustainable current situation - without having to approach the present from some or other highly idealised / normative / deferred positions in the future.

Features and uses

• A an alternative to traditional strategic/scenario planning which place excessive emphasis on ideal future states

• To embed lessons from stakeholders' past decision making in the research process

• To aid in conflict resolution between different groups with opposing views

Summary: End-notes

• The agility / versatility of SM resides in the fact that it can be used either as a synergic - standalone - method or used synergically together with some other agile methods. For example, vector monitoring and evaluation (VME) is not merely an exercise in quant-qual data gathering. At some point in this process the need for dialoguing in a facilitated workshop mode will arise, and it is at this point that FB can be introduced and used very effectively.

• Active involvement in facilitating FB processes can open up multiple and rich opportunities for researchers to work on - refining, changing, innovating - their dynamic epistemic objects - the net effect being that researchers are no longer solely dependent on the literature only for doing this theoretical work - provided that any new insights and understandings gained from this have been well recorded and made available for interrogation by others and referencing purposes.