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ABSTRACT
This essay traces the impact of the wider ideological landscape regarding "identity politics," interpretive practice, and literature of the 1970s on Judith Fetterley's The Resisting Reader. Specifically, it tracks the traces of Black and women of color feminist organizing legible in Fetterley's text, as well as those left by social movements operating at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Though these traces go unattributed, this article argues that their presence offers an opportunity to read, as Fetterley might put it, a closed system from "without." The author's resistant reading of Fetterley's text suggests how her "radical feminism" calls for a distinct attention to the materialist operations of academic and literary institutions in an investigation of their racialized, patriarchal power.

Purpose
The organization's core approach to exploring and influencing the future, Framework Foresight, emerged from piecemeal roots in the 1990s to an established method circa 2013. Since then, it has evolved from primarily a teaching tool to a project methodology in its own right. The purpose of this paper is to explore the iterative process that has emerged in which teaching and practice inform and advance one another.


Design/methodology/approach
Innovations in technique will be highlighted and illustrated by commentary from project experience. The piece will be providing readers with a birds-eye view into the evolution of a foresight method in both theory and practice.


Findings
The continuous iteration between theory and practice, or the classroom and the client world, provides an excellent means to advance the teaching and practice of foresight. Significant changes include three horizons, inputs, drivers, archetypes, rating scenarios and strategic approach.


Practical implications
This paper suggests that closer relationships between academia and the external/client world provide practical benefit by improving teaching and providing more innovative approaches for clients.


Originality/value
The description of the development of this unique approach to doing foresight work provides an example for other programs or firms to emulate.

While foresight continues to develop as a field, it is arguably still relatively unknown and underappreciated by potential clients and the public. Futurists are still explaining themselves and what they do on a regular basis. One challenge in explaining futures work is a lack of consensus around key questions about the field. While a variety of perspectives is valuable to futures work, for those new to it, the myriad answers to core questions—such as who futurists are, how futurists work, and how long have futurists been doing it—creates unnecessary confusion. While efforts have been made to address these questions, progress has been spotty. The field has been unable to settle on a name for itself that captures who futurists are. The recently proposed Foresight Competency Model is a step toward consensus on how futurists work. A key question that remains open is how long has formal futures work been done, that is, when did foresight begin as a field. An informal listserv discussion among professional futurists revealed a lack of consensus that was confirmed by a literature search. This piece took on the challenge of pinning down a specific year as the beginning of field—concluding that 1945 is the best candidate. The goal is to help futurists explain the field to those new to it.

The most frequently asked question I get in speaking with prospective foresight students is "can I get a job as a futurist?" I will make a case in this article that the lack of jobs and a career path in foresight is harming our long-term prospects as a field, and suggest a few things we can do about that. Three reasons are offered for why jobs are important to futurists: (1) Jobs are a way for us to influence organizations and the future, (2) jobs are a key consideration on the mind of those seeking to enter the field, and (3) jobs are a way to attract talent into the field. The current status of the job market for futurists is reviewed. The article concludes with five suggestions to improve the job prospects of futurists and, in turn, help build the field: (1) engage the jobs issue as a field, (2) build a profession, (3) develop a career ladder, (4) strengthen the academic base, and (5) promote the field. Preparing for our future is not a hobby, or a part-time job, but arguably the most important job that is drastically underfulfilled. The time is ripe for thinking about our own future as a field to achieve our common purpose of spreading foresight and doing our part to help make the world a better place.

Considers branding more in line with bringing forth self‐knowledge and self‐expression than the creation of a cultivated or false self. It's not about selling "new and improved" futures tools. Rather, it's about discovering the inner and authentic you and proclaiming it to your clients. The personal brand is about recognizing who you are and what you do best, and communicating that to clients.

The Association of Professional Futurists (APF) recently held a scenario salon that explored the "Futures of futures." The centerpiece of the findings was the identification and implications of four critical uncertainties affecting futurists and the futures field. First, is addressing the extremely fragmented nature of the field. Futurists must get better at working together more closely as a field to be successful. Second, is the need to confront our aging tool kit. It is not as if methodological innovation has stopped, but it is seen as largely incremental. Third, is the need for futures to create a unique value proposition that distinguishes futurists from mainstream consultants. Finally, there is the poor public image of the field. This suggests that there is a long‐term task ahead of careful rebuilding the brand of futures through a more sophisticated engagement with the public, especially the media. The APF has formed working teams around these issues. The APF sees a generation task ahead, but is confident that together with our futurist colleagues, we can achieve our goal of a "credible profession, thriving professionals."

This paper is intended to provide a guidebook for organizational futurists in building a foresight function inside today's organizations by suggesting ten questions that ought to be answered. It addresses how to start from a blank page, but can also offer help to those who have already established a function by suggesting additional questions to think about. It is intended to give auditees a sense of the key issues and challenges they will face. Managers may also find this audit useful in giving a sense of what an organizational futures function can deliver and the skills required of a prospective organizational futurist. A key assumption here is that while there is a growing demand for organizational futurists, the role is evolving to more of a broker function than the building of a staff function more typical of the past.