Back to the Future. Time and futures studies in the contemporary, design-driven approach to innovation

Reaching towards the future is a typical feature of modernity that has glorified, idealised, and exaggerated the value of its aspirations without, however, managing to take full advantage of them. As modernity breaks down there is a risk that the very idea of the future could be in crisis, and what is the sense of designing without a future? There are four significant moments in the evolution of the debate on the concepts of futures and anticipation in the modern sciences: 1) the American saga of the Rand Corporation which evolved into the contemporary Institute for the Future; 2) the pioneering phase of the French prospective; 3) the research related to the founding of the Club of Rome and the report it published that triggered a large part of the debate on the distinction between growth and development; and 4) the current European rebirth. This has been a multipart journey containing phases of renewal and abandonment. The latest phase has revived the term anticipation to indicate the set of interaction theories and practices with a plural concept of futures. Together with this, an international discussion has developed linking design cultures with the investigation into futures studies: two areas that until recently had not interacted. This article presents the roots of this debate and its connections with modernity. In parallel, it reports on a diverse and multidimensional relationship between design and futures supported by the contemporary designer’s awareness of time manipulation as an agent for stimulus and renewal. Finally, through a focus on the concept of time as future to be anticipated and materialized, it explores the points of contact between these disciplines and analyses the tools, processes and practices of Design Driven innovation as applied to products, services and communications.