As part of our work, we read a lot. Here’s a book review – covering the issues of organisations, adaptability, information flows, complexity and resilience – a lot of the things that we care about.

Organisations are ways for people to arrange themselves to achieve collective outcomes. People enter into partnerships in companies cooperating for profits to be distributed. People enter into independence movements because they believe the new collective can benefit more together than to stay in the previous regime. People enter into social movements because they believe that the benefits of… [Read More]

There’s been a lot of discussion in various media about the power of disruptive technologies and how things will be drastically different. The talk tends to be in negative terms – about how the industries of today will not exist, and that preparations should be made in case of mass unemployment.

When looking at economic development across longer-stretches of time, one possible conclusion is that disruptions happen more than we think. The original Industrial Revolution in the decades between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was not a one-time event, but a confluence of… [Read More]

2013 is shaping out to look like a low growth, volatile world where deleveraging in the markets of Europe and the USA grind on. China will work out its own way of growing domestic demand as a major driver, but with hard questions of corruption, nepotism etc to be worked out first. Post 2013, the USA seems to be a bright spot of growth, businesses cash rich are waiting on the sidelines for a window to act. We may see more of the same, in 2014, as Chimerica roars back into life…. [Read More]

Our publication Future Tense is out and we would like to share it with you.
It is a compilation of selected foresight projects we have been working on for the past 12 months. There are over 20 articles, covering diverse foresight-related topics under the categories of World, Home and Practice. Happy reading!

With 1 in 3 app developers below the “app poverty line”, the current App Economy isn’t as lucrative as it seems. But with new technologies, rising emerging markets and a global app space, the future looks much more promising.

1. The government-issued bailouts to banks and domestic manufacturers during the Atlantic financial crisis appear to reverse the growing dominance of corporations over nation states over the past decades of globalisation. Success is global but failure is local. Policymakers and politicians return to centrestage managing the downsides wrought by globalisation.

2. This power shift may be a brief respite. As the indebted West undergoes a decade or more of deleveraging, the bargain between citizen and state is being redefined as governments struggle to live within newly reduced means. For example, 14 out of… [Read More]

I want to continue exploring the political basis for economic development. One highlight over the weeks was the appearance of an article from Jeffrey Sachs in Foreign Affairs[1] about how Acemoglu and Robinson (A&R) simplified and exaggerated the importance institutions. Sachs noted that many countries switched from authoritarian, exclusive modes of governance to more democratic, inclusive modes only after attaining success in economic development. In doing so, Sachs suggests that A&R had gotten the political-economic link backwards; sometimes, transitions to more inclusive modes of governance is facilitated by economic development, and not… [Read More]

This is an idea on how jobs in Singapore can be redesigned in the future to achieve multiple environmental, social and economic objectives to enhance the liveability and sustainability of Singapore.

“Yes We” can t-shirt design from tcritic.com.

There’s been a lot of interest and debate both from the public and within the government on the subject of population in Singapore (the fertility rate of, the import of, etc). One recurring topic has been what the maximum (or at least comfortable) population is that our infrastructure can support. However, I find that most of the discussion so far have been purely technocratic or utilitarian in nature–taking the total amount of infrastructure we have and dividing it by the amount needed per person gives us… [Read More]

By: Mr Kwa Chin Lum, Head, Centre for Strategic Futures

I recently attended the Annual Conference of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, held in Wellington, New Zealand.  The theme of the Conference – quite relevant to foresight work in government – was on “Future Proofing the State: Risk, Responses and Resilience”.

The Conference offered many useful lessons in governance, public engagement, risk management and resilience.  I have highlighted three below that resonated with me most (You may also be interested in the keynote address by Senior Advisor, Centre for Strategic Futures,… [Read More]