The challenges and influence of Future Studies were discussed at a conference organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences
The challenges and influence of Future Studies were discussed at a conference organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences
The challenges and influence of Future Studies were discussed at a conference organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences
The UniverCity conference, now in its fourth year, was held at Bilbao AS Fabrik and Bilbao Berrikuntza Faktoria (BBF). Around 60 participants had the opportunity to reflect on the design of cities that respond to people’s needs and on the impact that higher education can have in this field.
The city of Bilbao hosted the UniverCity conference, now in its fourth year. The two-day conference was organized by the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences of Mondragon University and took place at Bilbao Berrikuntza Faktoria (BBF) and Bilbao AS Fabrik.
Under the title ‘Futures Studies in the UniverCity: collective experimentation to expand possibilities’, the main topic for discussion was the future impact of Future Studies.
Community initiatives and reflection
On the first day of the conference, the participants had the opportunity to learn about the different community projects that have been launched in the Bilbao neighborhood of San Francisco.
The second day involved discussion, reflection and prototyping of proposals.
At the beginning of the conference, Mikel Hidalgo, Social Innovation Advisor to the Basque Government’s General Secretariat of Social Transition and Agenda 2030, and London Metropolitan University researcher Wendy Ross spoke about the importance of rethinking the future in the face of systemic crises, and Ross emphasized the importance of the group in a model that is moving toward hyper-personalization.
For their part, Stuart Candy (Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico), Annalisa Sannino (Tampere University, Finland) and Jone Belaustegigoitia (Mondragon University) spoke about collective experimentation with an eye to the future.
Next, Anttí Rajala (University of Neuchâtel) and Paula Alvarez (Mondragon University) delved into the relationship between Future Studies and higher education, an area, in their opinion, that is key in facing the challenges of the future, since “we are living in times of uncertainty and in this situation, education is a good field for reflection.”
Finally, the participants took part in a prototyping exercise to close the conference.
Photo gallery of the conference:
