Chasing Black Swans through Science Fiction – Surprising Future Events in the Stories of a Finnish Writing Competition

: Surprising Future Events in the Stories of a Finnish Writing Competition

: Toni Ahlqvist, Tuomo Uotila, Olli Hietanen

Publisher: Flora C. I. Chang Tankang University

: 2015

Journal of Futures Studies: Epistemology, Methods, Applied and Alternative Futures

: JFS

: A47

: 20

: 2

: 47

: 66

: 20

: 1027-6084

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6531/JFS.2015.20(2).A47

: http://www.airitilibrary.com/Publication/alDetailedMesh?DocID=10276084-201512-201512310025-201512310025-47-65

In the paper we analyse the notion of ‘black swan’ as popularised by Taleb (2007). We

propose that in the context of the futures’ imagination, a black swan can be defined as hybrid

that integrates local knowledge with multiple temporal scales, combining past, present and

future tenses. As empirical material, we analyse the short stories from a writing contest held

by the Finnish Parliament’s Committee for the Future. The material contains 132 short stories.

The analysis gives intriguing insights into how Finnish people – from different locales,

of different ages and with differing educational and professional backgrounds – imagine different futures.