Bacon, Edwin (2012) Comparing political futures: the rise and use of scenarios in future-oriented area studies. Contemporary Politics 18 (3), pp. 270-285. ISSN 1356-9775.
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Abstract
The predictive ability of scholars of politics has long been a subject of theoretical debate and methodological development. In theoretical debate, prediction represents a central issue regarding the extent to which the study of politics is scientific. In methodological development, much effort and resource have been devoted to a diverse range of predictive approaches, with varying degrees of success. Expectations that scholars forecast accurately come as much from the policy and media worlds as from the academy. Since the end of the Cold War, scenario development has become prevalent in future-oriented research by area studies scholars. This approach is long due critical re-assessment. For all its strengths as a policy tool, scenario development tends towards a bounded methodology, driving the process of anticipating futures along predetermined paths into a standardised range of options, and paying insufficient attention to theoretical and contextual understandings available within the relevant scholarly disciplines.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Contemporary Politics, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13569775.2012.702972 |
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | area studies, forecasts, scenarios, methods, policy |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Jun 2013 10:48 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Jul 2025 03:48 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/7380 |
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