Author Description

We know we have to change but the question is how. Many of us feel powerless to solve the looming climate crisis, water crisis, food crisis, ocean pollution crisis and all other challenges that are enumerated by the 17 global sustainable development goals. How do we get to a safe, just space for humanity? We see the clock ticking as Covid Pandemic lingers on and as we enter the “climate decade,” the ten-year period where our actions will determine the kind of world our children will live in. How do we move from a state of ‘future shock’ to ‘future sense’? If we can build Smart cars, clothes, houses, cities and so on can we find a way to create smart futures? How might we find our way to sharing a flourishing future? 'SMART Futures for a Flourishing World' helps us see glimpses of our aspirational futures as far afield as the year 3000, and lays out a path for our journey to global sustainability. Dr. Claire A. Nelson combines lessons from her career focused on international development and sustainability engineering with her personal experience in systems change making to share how show how a few, seemingly simple questions can create the conditions for improved design thinking and lead to significant transformational change. Using stories of aspirational futures as a guide, SMART Futures takes us on a journey through myth and speculative fiction tinged with Afrofuturist sentiments that offer a decolonized perspective of preferred futures narratives -- then shows us how asking the right five questions can help us make the paradigm shift needed to achieve a flourishing world.