Governance Futures Lab
Core Team
Future NOW Blog
Global Food Outlook Virtual Exchange
Mar 19, 2013
The Coming Age of Networked Matter
Mar 05, 2013
Checking-in to Well-being
Mar 04, 2013
Shanzhai: An Open Platform for Innovation at SXSW
Feb 27, 2013
Are Artists the Future of Community Health?
Feb 25, 2013
The Stories of Our Time
Feb 20, 2013
Governance Futures Lab: Now is the Time
Feb 01, 2013
Tim Ferriss Visits the Future
Jan 31, 2013
Clowns, Placebos and the Future of the Care Effect
Jan 28, 2013
Governance Futures Lab
Reimagining society for an age of planetary challenges
and human responsibility
About the Lab
The Governance Futures Lab brings social inventors and futures thinking to the challenge of designing better systems of governance.
Today’s governments are, for the most part, incapable of dealing effectively and justly with the complex global challenges of the 21st Century. Governance failures will not only cause suffering for today’s citizens, but will ripple through time, constraining the future for generations to come. Revolutions have recently ruptured decades-old systems of government in the Arab world, and widespread dissatisfaction is growing in the United States and Europe.
If government as we’ve known it isn’t working, what fair, modern, and viable models will we have to rely upon to re-constitute society? The answer to this question may not be discovered—it may have to be invented.
The mission of the Governance Future Lab is to reimagine and experiment with the basic architectures and processes of governance. We believe it is necessary to experiment with new systems and new rules to govern life on our planet. We have powerful tools to connect, organize and coordinate human behavior. We also have unprecedented amounts of knowledge about how the world works and humanity’s role in its own future.
We are now seeing the beginning of a broad global desire to rethink the relationship between people and their governments. Through a range of public activities and initiatives, the Governance Futures Lab aims to facilitate the definition and invention of new governance systems appropriate for an age of planetary challenges and human responsibility.
The Governance Futures Lab, as part of the Institute for the Future, will utilize its deep expertise in:
- Rigorous foresight methods to explore the widest range of future possibilities
- Participatory systems to harness the wisdom and insight of the crowd
- Innovative media and visualization tools to make alternative futures tangible and actionable.
Lab Highlights
- Connected Citizens—January 22-23, 2013
What if we could reprogram our government together in just 24 hours? On January 22-23, over 500 players from 52 countries contributed more than 6,700 microforecasts in Connected Citizens, a one-of-a-kind, 24-hour collaborative forecasting game produced by the Institute for the Future (IFTF). - CivicMeet—April 27, 2013
IFTF and the Governance Futures Lab are partnering with the City of Palo Alto to challenge citizens to innovate the civic experience in the heart of Silicon Valley. Look for more CivicMeets to come, and Palo Alto’s CityCamp on April 27, 2013, in conjunction with our ReConstitutional Convention. - Hack for Change—June 1-2, 2013
National Day of Civic Hacking is a national event that will take place June 1-2, 2013, in cities across the nation. The event will provide citizens an opportunity to do what is most quintessentially American: roll up our sleeves, get involved and work together to improve our society. Visit hackforchange.org to learn more!
ReConstitutional Convention
On April 26-27, 2013, the Governance Futures Lab is convening a community of social inventors and innovators passionate in designing and creating new governance systems.
Partner With Us
For more information on partnering or collaborating with us on the Governance Futures Lab, please contact
Sean Ness:
- sness@iftf.org
- 650-233-9517
- online contact form
Or visit our facebook page at www.facebook.com/govfutures.