All Publications

Through our various, member-supported publications, the World Future Society strives to encourage thinkers, political personalities, scientists, and lay-people to share in an informed, serious dialogue on what the future will be like.

These publications include:

THE FUTURIST

THE FUTURIST is a bimonthly magazine published continuously since 1967 by the World Future Society and is a principal benefit of membership, read by 25,000 members worldwide. We are also available on newsstands coast to coast in the United States.

Among the many influential thinkers and experts who have contributed to THE FUTURIST are: Al Gore, Alvin and Heidi Toffler, Buckminster Fuller, Frederik Pohl, Isaac Asimov, Vaclav Havel, Hazel Henderson, and Margaret Mead.

In the past year, THE FUTURIST has featured articles and columns by William G. Mitchell and Joel Garreau on urban planning; Ray Kurzweil, John Smart, and J. Storrs Hall on the Singularity; Daniel Barnett of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on flu pandemic; Andrew Bacevich and Edward N. Luttwak on U.S. defense posture; Pulitzer Prize nominee James Martin on the existential challenges of the twenty-first century; NRDC vehicles campaign director Deron Lovaas and former CIA director James Woolsey Jr. on energy independence; New Atlantis editor Christine Rosen and New York Times Company futurist-in-residence Michael Rogers on the end of the written word; labor expert John Challenger and Wall Street Journal columnist Alexandra Levitt on workplace futures, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Congressman Dennis Kucinich on the future of the United States, and U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker on U.S. fiscal policy, among many others.

THE FUTURIST was nominated for a 2007 Utne Independent Press Award for Best Science and Technology Coverage.

World Future Review: A Journal of Strategic Foresight

Futures research encompasses both an evolving philosophy and a range of techniques. Its primary objective is to assist decision makers in understanding the potential consequences of present and future decisions by developing images of alternative futures. It has strong historical origins in sociology, political science, and other social sciences. As well, corporate and institutional planning, strategic and long-range planning, and national security are all part of the heritage of futures studies. Successful futures research is informed by work in established academic disciplines as well as cross-disciplinary fields, such as technology assessment, policy analysis, operations research, issues management, competition research, and many more.

World Future Review is a refereed journal. A prestigious international Editorial Review Board has been established to perform anonymous review of articles submitted for publication. WFR seeks to encourage and facilitate communication among researchers and practitioners in all related fields and from all geographic, social, political, and economic sectors. It is also intended to promote public understanding and education in the methods and applications of futures research. The focus of the editors is not only with specific techniques and planning tools, but also with the role of futures research in the larger context of decision making in a range of settings.

In addition to full-length articles and abstracts of the most important new foresight relevant literature, World Future Review will publish interviews of leading futures practitioners, full reviews of critical publications, reader reactions to articles, notes from Editorial Board members, and relevant topical items. Because it is sometimes not possible to present all viewpoints within the confines of a single WFR issue, we rely upon our readers to provide the necessary balance through their responses to material they might perceive as controversial or one-sided. In addition, the editors will seek to encourage as much cross-dialogue as possible among schools of thought within each issue.

In brief, it is our intent that this journal shall provide a forum for all who are professionally involved with the theory, methodology, practice, and use of futures research.

World Future Review (ISSN 1946-7567) is published bimonthly by the World Future Society. It is included with Professional and Institutional Membership in the Society and is available by subscription to libraries and other institutions at $330 per year. The dues for Professional Membership are $275 ($185 for individuals affiliated with educational or nonprofit organizations). Regular members may convert to Professional Membership at the special rate of $155 for the first year.

FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society

Futurist Update is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine.

Recent editions of Futurist Update have covered a wide range of fascinating stories, including:

• Building better embassies to meet the changing technological and security needs of diplomats serving critical remote areas.
• Tracking supplies of strategic minerals such as copper, silicon, and gallium, vital to communications, computers, and military.
• Assessing progress — or our lack of it — in conquering global hunger.
• Why the digital generation may be losing its heritage as they are "chatting" more but reading less; playing more, but researching and learning less than preceding generations.

Other regular features in Futurist Update keep you connected with our field (News from the Futurist Community) and with a wide variety of useful resources available online (Click of the Month).

Outlook

Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War. You can peruse more than three hundred forecasts from previous editions of Outlook from 2006, 2007, and 2008 at your leisure. Here are the editors' top 10 forecasts from Outlook 2009:

Future Times

Future Times is a quarterly Web journal about the World Future Society and its activities plus a column on new technologies written by WFS President Timothy C. Mack.