Scenario workshops

Scenarios display visions of future states and possible development paths. They may be presented, e.g. in a discursive and narrative way like newspaper stories containing fictive characters and be illustrated with pictures.

Scenario workshops are a popular way of building scenarios. Such workshops usually bring together participants with a wide range of knowledge and experience in various fields such as technology, economy, social or political sciences. The objective of scenario workshops is to build internally consistent pictures of future possibilities that are useful for envisaging implications of uncertain developments and examining the scope for action.

Foresight exercises may work with “multiple scenarios” so as to consider various development possibilities or make use of “aspirational scenario” approaches. In the second case a substantial effort is made to elaborate a vision of a desirable and feasible course of development.