All posts tagged: habermas

Backcasting: Why and How the Past and Present Drive the Future

Backcasting: Why and How the Past and Present Drive the Future

Published by Jenni Sidey

Backcasting is one of several methods futurists use to understand possible futures. Futurists, of course, cannot “tell the future,” but they work hard to offer realistic scenarios for others to aim for and work toward in their respective lives and/or lines of work. And, if enough people work towards a particular scenario, the likelihood of it being fulfilled will of course be bigger. This method differs from two other more commonly used futures studies methods, namely “forecasting” and “foresight.” Forecasting is what most corporate executives use when they want to engage in longer-term planning. It is a fairly simple method of extrapolation, using historical and present-day data to draw a curve in a diagram and then extrapolate it according to the planning period in question, whether it be a quarter, a year, or two to three years. Nevertheless, in this kind of fairly basic analysis, one must also take known and/or assumed influences into consideration, such as short-term economic, demographic, or climatic changes, expected technological developments, new competitors entering, or existing ones leaving one’s market …

Habermas, the Philosopher Who Shaped Germany’s Post-War Conscience

Habermas, the Philosopher Who Shaped Germany’s Post-War Conscience

Published by Sam Flores

BERLIN, March 14 (Reuters) – Juergen Habermas, best-known for his theory of political consensus-building, shaped the discourse of post-war Germany ⁠more ⁠than any other popular intellectual. He died on Saturday, aged 96, in ⁠Starnberg, Germany, the publisher Suhrkamp said. Over the course of seven decades, his public interventions – from searing critiques of fascist thought in the 1950s to more recent ​warnings against resurgent militarism and nationalism in Germany – steered the country at critical junctions.  Not only his longevity, but also the renewed relevance of his ideas are remarkable in a country where post-war pacifism is waning and the far-right Alternative for ‌Germany (AfD) has become the second-strongest party in parliament. Born on June ‌18, 1929 to a bourgeois family in Dusseldorf, Juergen Habermas underwent two surgeries after birth and in early childhood for a cleft palate. A resulting speech impediment is often cited as having influenced his work on communication. He was raised ⁠in a staunchly Protestant household. ⁠His father, an economist, joined the Nazi party in 1933 but was no more than …

Why We Need a Formal, Mandatory, and Remunerated “Citizen Lobby”

Why We Need a Formal, Mandatory, and Remunerated “Citizen Lobby”

Published by Jenni Sidey

At the end of the twentieth century, the end of the Cold War suggested that freedom and democracy were the name of the game. The launch of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s promised a free flow of information and knowledge as well as borderless access to people across the connected world. Democracy was now likely to become more than a system operated by an elite on behalf of “the people,” becoming instead something the people themselves could actively take part in—beyond merely being the smallest denominator of the electorate. The new millennium has, nevertheless, brought a number of counter-developments. Neither the East–West nor the North–South global dialogues have delivered the long-term socioeconomic stability hoped for. Trade, energy, and political interests—combined with various forms of fundamentalism—have contributed to a renewed arms race that many believed had ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Alongside—and perhaps contributing to—these developments, there has been a post-1989 trend toward political neoliberalism. This ideology argues that ultimate freedom of choice will liberate us from …