Muslim Societies in Postnormal Times: Foresights for Trends, Emerging Issues and Scenarios
About this ebook
But this is not destiny. In the cultivation of a new type of literacy – futures literacy – there resides a hope. Muslim Societies in Postnormal Times offers an alternative where we can ‘rescue’ and decolonise our futures. Sardar, Serra, and Jordan take an open and plural approach to the future revealing the true potentials that lie before us. Through detailed analysis of contemporary trends, the road to destruction is revealed. Through identifying and exploring emerging issues, agency through options can allow for positive change. And in the extrapolation of these ideas into scenarios, the authors pave the way for us to navigate our own preferred futures. Their study challenges the reader to think about the future in a new way, redefining the monolithic future as three tomorrows (Extended Present, Familiar Futures, and Unthought Futures), along the way ever watchful for Black Swans, Black Elephants, and the illustrious Black Jellyfish that could disrupt the path ahead.
The authors pull no punches in critically evaluating the possibilities and nightmares that could potentially befall Muslim societies. Through a display of creativity and imagination, this book looks beyond the conventional to illuminate impacts in the context of the complex, interconnected world we find ourselves in. This informative and enlightening text will push readers to see beyond popular, yet native notions of present and future. In the exposition of the reader’s ignorance and uncertainty, they will begin to look for the unthought and take agency in recolonising and navigating their preferred tomorrow.
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About the author
Ziauddin Sardar, writer, futurist and educator, is an internationally renowned public intellectual. He has published over 50 books, including Rescuing All Our Futures (Adamantine, New York, 1998), Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures: A Ziauddin Sardar Reader (Pluto, London, 2003), and most recently, Future: All That Matters (Hodder, London, 2013). He was editor of Futures, the monthly journal of policy, planning and futures studies, from 1999 to 2012, and served as a Commissioner on the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission from 2006 to 2009. He is the Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Future Studies.
Jordi Serra, futurist, consultant and educator, is Associate Professor in the Communication and International Relations Faculty, Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain. Formerly, he was head of Foresight Research, Risk Governance Centre, Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is on the editorial Board of Futures, World Future Review and Revista IAPEM. He has published a number of books in Spanish, most recently Inteligencia y análisis prospectivo: La gestión de la incertidumbre (Secretaria de Inteligencia, Quito, 2014). He is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies.
Scott Jordan, philosopher and political scientist, is attached to the Asian World Center at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He is a member of the Nonkilling Consortium International and has worked with the Soong Ching Ling Foundation in China. A regular contributor to the quarterly Critical Muslim, he hosts a radio podcast show, Tea Talk Asia. His research is focused on the postnormal dimensions of international policy, politics and governance, which he often explores through films. He is Exec Asst Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies.
