A visit from Finland

Erasmus project on Futures Literacy with the University of Turku

From September 19 to September 22, 2022, Juha Kaskinen, the director of the Finland Futures Research Centre, visited MCI as part of an Erasmus project. The focus of this four-day meeting was to strengthen futures thinking among students, in organizations and at universities in general.

The focus was thus on Futures Literacy - a capability that enables people to better understand the role of the future in their vision and actions. Futures literacy strengthens imagination, improves our ability to prepare for and drive change (UNESCO). In Europe, this ability is increasingly being strengthened at universities and its importance is being communicated. One university that has been working on this capability for a quite long time and already offers a study program in this area is the University of Turku.

The Department of Business Administration Online wants to focus even more on this capability in the future, which is why, on the initiative of Antje Bierwisch, Juha Kaskinen came to Innsbruck for a valuable exchange. During these four days, the two universities introduced themselves, talked about general points of connection and thus international cooperation opportunities. At the end of the four-day meeting, agreement was reached on various exciting projects in the following areas:

• International cooperation in teaching - focus on Futures Thinking, Corporate Foresight
• Research projects with the Finland Futures Research Centre
• Projects with organizations on various futures topics

In the next few months, the first implementation phase of the first projects will start. We will share updates and project content in the department news section in the future.