Find here our special partnership offer!

Call for Higher Education Partners

This is a call for university departments and academic disciplines as partners in planning and
implementing the Future Consciousness, Anticipation and Values - Definitions, Meanings and Connections to Futures Research, 6 cr -course together with the Finland Futures Academy, at University of Turku (partners: Museology and European Ethnology, School of History, Culture and Arts Studies).

We ask you to express your interest latest on End of Dec, 2014.

The course is a part of activities of the European-wide network, the European Regional Foresight
College and the European Millennium Project Nodes Initiative, ERFC/ EuMPI. It is offered for masters and post-graduate students during May-Sept, 2015. There is an idea of sharing teaching resources, learning modes and course contents between partner universities. The aim is to offer students a high-quality international learning environment with students and teachers coming from different parts of the world. Please read this call further on and contact us for exploring prospects of cooperation in more details.

How to establish a partnership?

In the course there are both distant (net-based) and contact learning sessions. It is possible for the
teacher and the students to compose a study group and get together at their own university. There
are local learning sessions combined with net-based video clips of the conference and virtual
learning environments where interaction takes place and study materials are delivered. As a result of
partnership we can offer students added value with a well-defined and rich learning environment
and enhanced interaction competences. For reasons of spontaneous interaction and genuine
experience we wish that students have a possibility to take part in the International Conference June
11-12, 2015 (Turku, Finland). However, travelling is not a necessary condition for establishing a
partnership and offering the course.

During the course you enter as one of the partner universities of the Finland Futures Academy (FFA),
a network of 10 Finnish universities. As a partner university you get access to working modes and
learning contents that have been developed by the FFA since the establishment in 1998.

Rationality of course contents

Current discussion in the futures research field has raised the question of future consciousness.
Meanwhile neurologists, psycologists and philosophists make a powerful contribution to defining
consciousness, future consciousness is still rather poorly defined by futures researchers. As a
research target, future is abstract. It is only present in our minds. Without thinking there are neither
futures nor future consciousness. Futures thinking and mental time travelling are among demanding
cognitive skills. We think backwards and forwards and create our worldview on a temporal
continuum. We evaluate history and current developments, and preserve valuable artifacts and
achievements for future generations. There are such questions as: What is mental time travelling?
How to define temporal thinking skills? What is future consciousness? What is valuable? In this
course we approach the issue of inner self, which is deeply human and difficult to be explored or
replicated, and – therefore - valuable.

Learning Modes

The course consists of a preparation day in May and an intensive learning session of “Futures
Studies Tackling Wicked Problems: Where Futures Research, Education and Action Meet” - International Conference June 11-12, 2015, Turku, Finland. There is an evaluation
day in September 2015. During the course students produce scientific articles concerning future
consciousness.

Contact information

We ask you to express your interest:

M.Sc Sari SöderlundCoordinator
Finland Futures Academy / Finland Futures Research Centre
Turku School of Economics / University of Turku
www.tvanet.fi / sari.soderlund(at)utu.fi
tel. +358 50 401 87666