Governing anticipation: UNESCO making humankind futures literate

IF 0.9 Q4 MANAGEMENT
Ulrik Jennische, Adrienne Sörbom
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

PurposeThis paper explores practices of foresight within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) program Futures Literacy, as a form of transnational governmentality–founded on the interests of “using the future” by “emancipating” the minds of humanity.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on ethnographic material gathered over five years within the industry of futures consultancy, including UNESCO and its network of self-recognized futurists. The material consists of written sources, participant observation in on-site and digital events and workshops, and interviews.FindingsBuilding on Foucault's (1991) concept of governmentality, which refers to the governing of governing and how subjects politically come into being, this paper critically examines the UNESCO Futures Literacy program by answering questions on ontology, deontology, technology and utopia. It shows how the underlying rationale of the Futures Literacy program departs from an ontological premise of anticipation as a fundamental capacity of biological life, constituting an ethical substance that can be worked on and self-controlled. This rationale speaks to the mandate of UNESCO, to foster peace in our minds, but also to the governing of governing at the individual level.Originality/valueIn the intersection between the growing literature on anticipation and research concerning governmentality the paper adds ethnographically based knowledge to the field of transnational governance. Earlier ethnographic studies of UNESCO have mostly focused upon its role for cultural heritage, or more broadly neoliberal forms of governing.
管理预期:教科文组织使人类的未来有文化
本文探讨了联合国教育、科学及文化组织(UNESCO)“未来扫盲”项目中的远见实践,作为一种跨国政府形式——建立在通过“解放”人类思想来“利用未来”的利益之上。设计/方法/方法本文借鉴了未来咨询行业(包括联合国教科文组织及其自认的未来学家网络)五年来收集的人种学材料。材料包括书面来源,现场和数字活动和研讨会的参与者观察,以及采访。本文以福柯(1991)的治理概念为基础,通过回答本体论、义务论、技术和乌托邦等问题,批判性地考察了联合国教科文组织的未来扫盲计划。它显示了未来扫盲计划的基本原理如何偏离了预期作为生物生命的基本能力的本体论前提,构成了可以工作和自我控制的伦理物质。这一基本原理既符合教科文组织的使命,即在我们的思想中促进和平,也符合个人层面的治国之道。在越来越多的关于预期的文献和关于治理的研究之间的交集中,本文将基于民族志的知识添加到跨国治理领域。早期对联合国教科文组织的人种学研究主要集中在其在文化遗产方面的作用,或者更广泛地说,新自由主义形式的治理。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.90
自引率
37.50%
发文量
17
期刊介绍: The Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) has been launched to provide an opportunity for scholars, from all social and management science disciplines, to publish over two issues: -high-quality articles from original ethnographic research that contribute to the current and future development of qualitative intellectual knowledge and understanding of the nature of public and private sector work, organization and management -review articles examining the history and development of the contribution of ethnography to qualitative research in social, organization and management studies -articles examining the intellectual, pedagogical and practical use-value of ethnography in organization and management research, management education and management practice, or which extend, critique or challenge past and current theoretical and empirical knowledge claims within one or more of these areas of interest -articles on ethnographically informed research relating to the concepts of organization and organizing in any other wider social and cultural contexts.
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