A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
The Greatest Mystery of Futures Studies; 
Authors: Virmajoki, Veli
Publisher: Wiley
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Futures & Foresight Science
Volume: 8
Issue: 2
eISSN: 2573-5152
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ffo2.70046
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ffo2.70046
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526620926
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Futures studies has long lived with a puzzle: every domain the field investigates is already studied by some special science. Three familiar replies—that futures studies extracts insights, takes a longer view, or includes lay perspectives—each capture something real but do not, on closer inspection, individuate the field at the level of its object. A proper object, we argue, is the possibility space, a structured field that is, in essence, constitutively modal, multi-domain, anchored in contested presents, and reflexively shaped by accounts of itself. Futures studies and the special sciences are, probably, doing complementary cognitive labor rather than competing.
Keywords:
futures studies, Philosophy of science
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