What if education wasn’t controlled by institutions but shaped by learners, communities, and technology? Using backcasting, I explored a future where learning is decentralized, open, and driven by collaboration—and mapped the steps to get there.

This vision is inspired by discussions between Sara Skvirsky (IFTF Research Director) and Katherine Prince (VP of Foresight & Strategy, KnowledgeWorks), as well as the 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning - a report that, even today, feels like a glimpse into what’s coming.

🔹 How do we get there?

- From institutional control to collective intelligence
- From passive learning to a culture of creation
- From centralized credentials to peer-validated knowledge
- From rigid curriculums to dynamic, adaptive education

🎥 Watch the short film exploring this future!

As a partner of the Eye of Europe Project, Helenos will implement its second pilot on Fashion Futuring, investigating potential links among objects, fiction, culture, and systems to understand how the values of the systems/societies can shape the future of fashion.

Date: 14/04/2025
Time: TBA
Location: MOMus- Museum of Modern Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Format: In-person
Audience: Domain Experts


Context
Have you ever wondered why people in Ancient Egypt (3100-30 BCE) wore hair wigs? Or why samurai have been associated with kimonos, while feminine full skirts are linked with the post-war America of the ‘50s? There are numerous examples of fashion items that represent specific periods and places. But what does that signify? In ancient Egypt, men wearing hair wigs was considered an honor and a symbol of equalization to women, as women were regarded as wise and sacred.

Similarly, in Tokugawa Japan (1603 – 1868), when samurai lived, clothing indicated one’s rank and role within the highly structured feudal society, while in post-war America, fashion was influenced by the idealized image of the suburban family, emphasizing domesticity and traditional gender roles. The common space of all three examples is that - throughout the centuries - fashion has served people and societies as a way of self-expression, a sign of social status, also revealing the prevailing social norms and beliefs.

Today, our highly complex and uncertain world requires strategic tools that will help us create new sustainable development trajectories. Fashion not only reveals unique and collective identities, norms, and ethics but is also associated with environmental issues. It is one of the largest pollutant industries, prompting a shift in the way we produce and consume fashion items. How might the climate crisis change our attitudes, and how does this impact the fashion industry?


What is Fashion Futuring?
Fashion Futuring is an innovative approach that investigates potential links among objects, fiction, culture, and systems to understand how the values of the systems/societies can shape the future of fashion. It suggests a significant shift in the future of fashion approach, moving away from short-term trends and financial forecasting as primary factors for fashion production, towards sustainable, more humane means of fashion producing and consuming.


The pilot
The upcoming pilot in April is targeted towards domain experts in fashion & foresight. The workshop consists of a 7-stage methodology based on Garcia (2023), where participants will be encouraged to share their personal experiences and values, co-create a fictional future, and work together to design a fictional fashion item based on this future. The workshop will utilize various foresight methods, primarily core design, what-if scenario development, and strategic thinking.

That will be the second pilot in Fashion Futuring implemented by Helenos. The first pilot was held in January 2025 in Thessaloniki, involving local citizens. This upcoming workshop aims to contribute to a collective knowledge pool, helping to create a comprehensive understanding of the future of fashion and sustainability.

This workshop will be implemented in English.

For more information, please contact the following emails: 

stavros.mantzanakis@helenosconsulting.eu (Stavros Mantzanakis)

eliza.savvopoulou@helenosconsulting.eu (Eliza Savvopoulou)

OECD has released the Strategic Foresight Toolkit for Resilient Public Policy, designed to help policymakers anticipate and navigate future challenges and opportunities.

By exploring 25 potential disruptions across environmental, technological, economic, social, and geopolitical domains, the Toolkit equips governments with a practical, five-step foresight methodology to challenge assumptions, create scenarios, stress-test strategies, and develop future-ready policies. It includes facilitation guides, case studies, and actionable insights to support resilience in an uncertain world.

Today, there is broad consensus that it must be the task of politics to ensure justice and freedom across generations. Not only courts and social movements worldwide are calling for a strengthening of forward-looking and provident governance. Many political actors within and outside the German government are also demanding a strengthening of capacities for long-term thinking and action in order to better meet the major challenges of the 21st century. How can we succeed in making policy more forward-looking? How can we strengthen our ability to deal with uncertainty and complexity? How would processes and structures have to change to achieve this? What role can strategic foresight (SF) play here?
These questions were addressed in the study conducted by the Fraunhofer ISI Foresight Team together with Prof. Sylvia Veit (administrative scientist at the University of Kassel) on behalf of the Federal Chancellery.
The aim was to examine the status quo in Germany and to develop various options for institutionalising strategic foresight as a process, method and approach in the German government's policy and administration, and to evaluate their advantages and disadvantages. This should create a basis for discussion for the further anchoring of strategic foresight in government action.