COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

Graduate Institute of Futures Studies

Degrees Offered:M.A

TO Webpage:

Chair:Jui-Guey Chen

The Institute

The Graduate Institute of Futures Studies has been commenced since fall of 2002. Its major objective is to integrate various disciplines to meet the megatrend of "learning revolution." The Institute emphasizes a trans disciplinary approach in facing the new era of globalization, information-oriented education and future-oriented education. The Institute also puts great emphasis on local society’s historical and cultural development in a broader context of globalization. Students will receive long-range, forward-looking and integrative training so as to become future leaders that have insights and visions.

The Institute also offers undergraduate futures courses in five major areas: futures studies in society, technology, economy, environment and politics. Besides, it has also designed correlated courses for graduate studies. Currently, the Institute has published a scholarly quarterly periodical, Journal of Futures Studies, and has been actively ordering and exchanging essays, journals, and books, coordinating scholarly discussion via international conferences, workshops, and websites, and co-sponsoring seminars with World Future Society (WFS), World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF), and Foundation for the Future (FFF). The Institute has also received a four-year research grant from the Ministry of Education to integrate undergraduate futures-related courses into a futures research program.

Faculty

Associate professors

Chen, Jui-kuei ; Chen, Kuo-hua

Assistant professors

Chen, Chien-fu ; Deng, Jian-bang ; Ji, Shun-jie ; Solomon, Jon Douglas ; Lai, Chia-ling ; Song, Mei-mei

Visiting Professors

Inayatullah, Sohail

Lecturer

Teng, Yu-ying

Degree Requirements

The Graduate Institute of Futures Studies offers the program of Master degree in social science. Successful completion of 32 credits of courses, including 9 credits of required courses.
Students are also required to submit a written master's thesis completed under the supervision of a faculty member and pass an oral examination.

Course Descriptions

A2033 Issues in Futures Studies (2/0) This course explores problems, trends and emerging issues in futures studies. These include: health futures, developments in genetics, innovation in technology particularly artificial intelligence, demographic changes, military futures, and gender futures.

D0010 Theoretical Approaches to the Future (3/0) This course develops the academic basis for futures studies. The origins, approaches, philosophical foundations for the field are explored, as well as questions around the futures of futures studies.

D0011 Macrohistory and Macrohistorians (2/0) This course examines various perspectives on individual, social, and civilizational change. Macrohistory is the study of social systems, along separate trajectories, in search of patterns.

D0012 Social Science Research Method (3/0) This course is based on the training of social science. What's a fact? What's a problem? How to observe social facts? What is a research? How to operate a concept and construct a theoretical framework? And how to collect and analyze data will also be discussed.

D0013 Organizations and Movements in Futures Studies (2/0) This course aims to discuss: Which organizations support the work of futurists? Where are they located? What are case studies of successful use of the futures studies approach? Which movements are future oriented (or are they all single issue present based)?

D0014 Technology, Innovation and Learning (2/0) This course aims to discuss: What are the trends in pedagogy? How can educational systems be more future oriented? What are the case studies to support innovation in education? What will the education system of the future look like?

D0015 Regional Development and Globalization (2/0) This course examines the impact of globalization on regional development, including national level, Asia-Pacific areas, and the world. Globalization will be emphasized on the impact of multi-national enterprises, labor force migration, industrial clusters, capital interventions and technological innovations.

D0016 & D0017 Proseminar I & II (1/1) This introductory seminar will serve as a thorough academic orientation for postgraduate students. The focus is to provide necessary skills toward how to become professional futurists.

D0018 Change and Development (0/3) Theories of social change are based on organizational traditions that emphasized on innovation, control, plan and management. The objective of this course is to employ change and development theories to explore the futures of business organizations and nations, particularly on the impact of globalization and the post-colonial societies.

D0019 Science, Technology and Future Society (0/2) This course aims to discuss the following questions: How can the ethical-legal-socio system become more future-oriented? How will artificial intelligence change how law is conducted? What is the impact of issues such as globalization on the future of international law? What is terrorism and world law? Can law keep up with changes in world economy and technology? Is a Science court needed to address issues such as the rights of robots?

D0020 Leisure and Working Society (0/2) Leisure gradually replaces traditional working patterns and become a new lifestyle for future societies. Whether leisure will replace working or not? Will
leisure create more working opportunities? Is leisure only a special working pattern? Those questions will create more discussions in this course.

D0021 Multiculturalism and Population Change (0/2) What’s multiculturalism? Through global village or local Taiwanese perspectives, this course leads students to explore problems of multi-ethnics, and conflicts of the majority and minority. Meanwhile, we discuss with the result of the coming elderly society and complex patterns and relations of families.

D0022 Post-Colonial Futures Society (0/2) What are the related issues in post-colonial societies? How to imagine or adjust the paradox of the post-colonial society? After the trend of economic globalization, the new pattern of division of labor among the world's economic system is gradually organized. This course will discuss the new dominant-dependent network of economic, culture, social and politics among nations.

D0023 Methods in Futures Studies (0/3) This course investigates the methods used in futures studies. These include: scenario development, causal layered analysis, futures wheels, visioning, trend analysis, emerging issues analysis and backcasting.

D0073 Philosophical Elements of Futures Studies (2/0) This course is designed to discuss the traditions of Futures Studies, including economic trend and predictions, sociological context analysis, the origin and result of change and development, and construction of time and space by philosophical perspectives.

D0075 Trend Analysis – Exploring the Long Term Future (2/0) This course aims to discuss: What is the long term future of humanity? What are the critical factors necessary for survival and trivial? Can the long term future be forecasted?

D0076 Designing the Future (0/2) The course focuses on how to create the future. Design implications in created preferred futures are explored. What is the difference between the good and the perfect society? How can one ensure that one's political and social design is robust and does not close the future?

D0077 Eco-Economy and Sustainable Development (2/0) The core of this course is sustainability, as alternative to economic progress. It is designed to create rooms for constructive debates and provides paths for humanity to guarantee present and future generations to satisfy their needs.

D0078 Health Futures (0/2) This course presents critical trends and scenarios that are crucial: globalization, the Internet revolution, the genetics revolution and the multicultural swing. Either as full-blown or emerging issues create healthy futures that will be unrecognizable to us.

D0079 Biotechnology and Risk Society (2/0) Adopting theoretical perspectives from risk society, this course intends to explore level of societal realization toward genetic engineering. Public interest, value orientation, and associated attitude are among the focus of issues.

D0080 Network and Information Society (2/0) Questions and discussions will be the focus of this course. What are the characters of the segmented polysepalous network? What are the Learning Networks? How is the bureaucracy in the future? How are the Social Networks good for the development of the globalization?

D0081 Religion and Civilization Conflicts (0/2) This course starts with the intertwined relationship between technology and religion. What’s the religion and global consciousness in the
future? What is the value of the New-Thought Churches? What are Scenarios for adherents of world religions? What is Religion of Humanity?

D0087 Vision and Alternative Futures of Public Policy (2/0) The evaluation on a governmental policy usually is focused on its implicit and explicit goals. It is not unusual to see some policies are used to achieve certain political interests without comprehensive consideration. A wrong policy imposes great cost on every aspect of the society and should be avoided. This course uses the methodology of Futures Studies-"Vision-Picture-Strategy"- to build appropriate model for policy making and evaluation.

D0088 Designing the Future (0/2) This course focuses on how to create the future. Design implications in created preferred futures are explored. What is the difference between the good and the perfect society? How can one ensure that one's political and social design is robust and does not close the future?

D0090 Practical Uses of Futures Knowledge (2/0) The main purposes of the practical application are twofold: to establish research and professional networks with government and business sectors, as well as non-profit organizations; moreover, to create opportunity for students to link futures studies with action learning approach.

D0103 Futures Thinkers and Futures Thinking (2/0) Futures thinkers and futures thinking approaches the study of the future by analyzing futurists. These include academics and activists in the field. The following questions were asked of leading futurists. 1) What are the influences in your work? 2) What methods do you use in your futures studies? 3) What trends do you see creating the future? 4) What is your vision of the future? 5) References. The purpose of these questions was to gain insight into each scholar's story in futures studies. The purpose of this course, thus, is to better understand the theories, values and methods of futures studies by understanding the actors in the field.

D0119 The Trend of Human Resource Management (2/0) This course will elaborate the futures issues in terms of human resource management. It will also focus on how globalization and globalization impact the issues in selecting criteria and developing effective global managers.

D0120 China's Economic and Political Change(0/2) This course is to help students inquire structural elements underling Chinese society. It covers political, economic and social issues which have been long debated. The course depicts the difficulties and opportunities China encounters in the process of modernization.

D0121 Seminar on Global Trend Watch (0/2) The purpose of this seminar course is to provide students with an understanding of those mega trends or future topics of the new era. It focuses on regional development, global governance, knowledge based economy, innovation and social change. This course applies both theoretical lectures and practical visits.

D0122 Multicultural Studies & Organizational Change (2/0) This course focuses on elaborating the multicultural issues in changing and developing organization. Organization development will energize the talents of individuals within the organization members in the pursuit of their own self-interests on making the organization more successfully and making their quality of working life more satisfying.

D0123 Globalization and Transnational Migration (0/2) The national state was usually understood as an imaged community with a single people, an undivided loyalty to a common government, and a shared past within this people. Hence immigrants were forced to abandon or deny their ties to their societies of origin. Globalization and transmigrants, however, have greatly changed this situation. Transmigrants construct their simultaneous embeddedness in more than one society and preserve their culture and identity to societies from which they emigrated. This course attempts to discuss this new phenomenon from various viewpoints like transnationalism, citizenship, methodological nationalism and multiculturalism, etc. Some case studies in Taiwan are also included.

D0124 Philosophy of Futures Studies (2/0) This course explores the philosophical foundations of futures studies. We examine issues about meaning of planning and possibility of predication. Discussion of these questions are from the writings of contemporary philosophers such as Ossip K. Flechtheim, Max Weber, Jürgen Habermas, Karl Popper and Hans Jonas.

D0125 Applied Ethics (0/2) This is a seminar on issues concerning applied ethics. Topics include the problem of sexual equality, legitimating crisis of capitalism, biomedical ethics, animal rights and idea of global democracy. We will approach these topics by examining answers provided by contemporary discourse ethics.

D0153 Migration And Modern Society (2/0) This seminar invites all participants together to explore the phenomenon of migration. In the first part of seminar we discuss the reasons why people migrate, the history of migration in Europe, emerging issues of migration and new models of future migration etc. The second part of seminar focuses on a specific type of international migration: professional migrants. "Modern capitalism", "work", "mobility", "flexibility" and "transnational lives" are some key concepts which will help us to understand this kind of migration.

D0219 Organizational Change and Uncertainty Management (2/0) The fast changing and uncertainty environments in the 21st century require organization to be agile and responsive in the conditions of change and uncertainty. In an environment of continuous and unpredictable change the organizations have to develop the capability to survive by reacting quickly, effectively to change environments, and to create the sustainable future. This course aims to explore the uncertainty environments, develop the successful strategy and manage the changing organization.

D0243 Social Conflict and Educational Innovation (2/0) This course examines recent and future trends in university education in the context of the vast changes in the mode of production and social relations ushered in by the knowledge economy. We will look at past theories of the university as "state apparatus" (Althusser) and "disciplinary institution" (Foucault) as well as recent work on the university in relation to "disorganized networks" (Rossiter) and "cognitive capitalism" (Moulier-Boutang).

D0245 Tourism, Leisure and Consumer Culture (2/0) This course aims to introduce the historical development of tourism and leisure and its social transformation. It discusses the mechanism of tourist destination making. this course leads the students to inquire the consumption part of tourism and the tourist practices, and includes the issue of package tour, backpackers’ journey, travel photo-taking, souvenir shopping, tourist embodied experiences, danger/risk tourism and insurance.

D0247 Ethnograghy in Futures Studies (2/0) This course introduces qualitative research strategies for students in futures studies. In addition to basic concept and theories, special emphases are given to skills in data collection, data analysis, and report writing. Ethical issues in qualitative research inquiry will also be discussed.

S0467 Applied Statistics (0/3) This course provides graduate students with a systematic treatment of the quantitative study. Major issues include testing the research hypothesis, Ch-square test and Non-parametric statistics, Analysis-of-Variance, the simple and multiple variables regression, dummy and regression diagnostics, and Time Series analysis. Many of the statistical software packages, including SPSS+, Minitab and SAS, are also employed in the practical assignments. Finally, students should learn how to conduct a set of survey data, to solve some common problems, and to interpret complex findings of the empirical studies.

T 8000 Thesis (0/4) This course helps students to have individual research planned, carried out, and reported under the supervision of a Graduate Studies Committee member.

Undergraduate Core Courses Descriptions

T0176 Futures Studies in Environment (2/0)(0/2) The central focus of this course is on the construction of a balanced personal value structure for both the environment and economy. The following topics are discussed: multi-objective concepts, rationality, implications of the environmental crises, personal value adjustment and the environment and the importance of morality.

T0231 Conflict Society and Peace Visions (0/2) This course examines the nature, meanings and dimensions of conflict and violence in Taiwan and Asia-Pacific countries. The impacts of the economic and political globalization on peace and security are also discussed, including the military-industrial complex and budgets, the poverty and new working-poor class, the new migrants and foreign brides, the environmental crises, and the contradiction of human rights. Finally, we provide alternative means of dealing with threats to peace are examined at community, national and international levels.

T0232 Globalization and Human Resource Development (2/0) This course will focus on elaborating how globalization affects human resource development. Human resource development includes the issues of training and development within the organization. Upon globalization, human resource development practitioners need to design and conduct more intercultural training programs for expatriates and other employees who might have aspiration toward overseas assignments.

T1178 Future Studies in Economics (2/0)(0/2) The purpose of this course is to help students in creating economic alternatives, and to assist them in rethinking and then shaping the future.

T1179 Futures Studies in Society (2/0)(0/2) This course aims at different ways of looking into the futures of society. Establishing more sociologically and future-oriented attitudes would be useful for social scientists in search of an epistemological basis for forecasting.

T1180 Futures Studies in Technology (2/0)(0/2) This course is divided into three parts: 1. The Automation of Future; 2. City of the Future; and 3. An Introduction to information technology.

T1208 Futures Studies in Politics (2/0)(0/2) This course focuses first on the definition, principles, characteristics and the framework of futures studies in politics; second, on providing students with a brief history and development of human society. It also analyzes the causes and results of political cultures, political behaviors, political participation and political negotiation.

T2052 Multiculturalism and Global Society (2/0) The purpose of this course is to explore and examine the political, economical, and social impact of the emerging multiculturalism and globalization. We emphasize that the new cultural empire, in particular the American value and lifestyles, gradually influences societies worldwide, even Taiwan.

T2158 Introduction of Futures Theories (2/0) The goals of this course are: 1.Understanding of theories, methods and issues; 2. Detailed understanding of one thematic area in Futures Studies (for example, the futures of information technologies, the futures of genetics, or the futures of East Asia); 3. Detailed understanding of one’s own preferred professional future and the futures of professions generally.

T2159 Health, Leisure, and the Future (0/2) The focus of this course is be on mountain sports in Taiwan as well as the world. This course will introduce the historical and cultural dimensions of mountaineering, and consider issues such as colonialism, aboriginal policy and identity, gender construction, feminist theory, environmental issues, technology, consumerism, and the effects of military mobilization and national identity upon social forms of leisure.

T2160 Technological Society and Sustaining Development (2/0) This course concentrates on the development of technological society and issues of technological society that can be extended to risk society, power structure and sustaining development. The exploration will give a new reflection in challenging high technological development.

T2161 Vision and Creative Thinking (0/2) This course is for students to project personal and collective futures through nontraditional thinking methods. Very often, we see discussions of vision mainly on personal career planning; this course aims to enhance students' responsibility for the bigger future. The integration of self-interest and public interest is a critical challenge for every member of the society. Through creative ways of thinking, students are urged to positively pursue the best future, which is the created one.

T2162 The Knowledge-Based Economy and Society (2/0) Information exchange processes provide a mechanism of social coordination in addition to economic exchange relations and political and managerial control. Knowledge-based innovation systems thus provide us with a system of social coordination in terms of communication that is potentially coded differently in scientific and market domains. Related topics will be discussed in this course.

T2163 Global Futures (0/2) The debate about globalization has been going on in a variety of different fields of intellectual work for some time. As such a global framework emerges, an increasing number of academic discussions are moved around the global futures - the framework of cooperation among corporations, governments, and advocacy groups to resolve conflict and create opportunity. In this course diverse issues regarding the global future will be discussed.

T2164 Leadership and Vision (0/2) The main purpose of this course is to identify the essential competencies for the new knowledge-based economy, mainly from the global perspectives of social change, globalization, citizen participation and knowledge management. Both the two knowledge management assessment tools clearly indicate that school leadership is indeed a key element in the knowledge management of a school.

T2165 Prediction and Trend Analysis (2/0) The purpose of this course is to explore some of many methods in which future studies usually employ to predict, analyze, and explain the social fact, and in particular, oncoming consequences and future impacts. We will illustrate some classic social issues and impacts, such as population trend, economic cycles, causal relation and correlation, prediction and time trend analysis.

T2187 Futures Studies and The Trend of Sport Culture (2/0) Sport is not only a human physical activity, but has various implications in economic development, intersocietal competition, and global trend. Sport culture in one society reveals its conventional rituals and spirits. This course aims to introduce the framework of Futures Studies to explore every aspect of sport culture, and to develop a solid understanding of the most important activities of human beings.

T2188 Popular Science and Technology (2/0) We believe that all technologies are to serve human beings. Through a circumspect selection of characteristic science fiction movies, together with explanations and analyses of certain new and emerging technologies, this course will be able to achieve its objectives, which are to change students’ indifference towards science and technology; to deliver the knowledge of the latest science and technology; and to guide students to think deeply about technology related topics from a humanist angle.

T2189 Classic Readings of Futures Studies (2/0) The course is designed to combine basic concepts of futures thinking with the perusal of literature to get into deeper level of thought, application and to cultivate interest to pursue integrated knowledge of futures studies.

T2190 The Futures of the Coming Cybernetic World (0/2) The development of cyber-world creates the new cohesive field in the modern society. By means of the exploration in diverse dimensions of network society, the course will analyze the dynamic penetration and influence between network system and human social life. In addition, this course hopes to help students to deeply explore multiple impacts in future society.