After a successful completion of the course, the student understands the nature of futures knowledge and knows the main methods available for assessing the future development of the forest sector. Also, the course will demonstrate how these methods have been applied in practice in the forest sector. It will provide an understanding on how foresight analysis can be made quantitatively and qualitatively, or mixing these two approaches. It shows how the political, economic, social, technological, and environmental issues all effect and interact in shaping the future. The course will also train students on how to interpret and critically evaluate some applications of foresight methods, thus providing better understanding of the purposes, strengths, and weaknesses of the various foresight methods.

Core knowledge: What is futures studies and what is foresight? What kind of knowledge does foresight produce and where can it be used? Foresight tools and methods. How to choose foresight methods and how to evaluate foresight reports. How foresight tools have been applied globally and in Finland in the forest sector.

Lectures (24 h), group project (oral presentation, written report, opponent task), examination. Obligatory presence in two group presentation sessions. Third course examination in the electronic exam system (https://exam.uef.fi/) for a limited time. 

Partly distance learning in Zoom.

Selection of research articles and material (in English) announced at the start of the course.

0-5 (group project 50 %, exam 50 %) 

Research methodologies in forest sciences (or equivalent).

Every autumn

Forest Science M.Sc. students & Environmental Policy and Law, Environmental Science and Forestry -exchange programme students.

Joensuu

The course is in English.