Socio-Economic and Developmental Needs: Focus of Foresight Programmes

Abstract

Emerging economies in Central and Eatern Europe can benefit significantly from conducting foresight programmes. Yet, foresight should not be conducted for its own sake – just because it is becoming “fashionable” throughout the world, and currently being promoted by the EU. On the contrary, there should be a strong link between foresight, decision preparation and policy-making.

In other words, foresight should be used in the context of (adequately identified) policy needs. Its focus (e.g. pure science and technology, techno-economic or socio-economic) is, therefore, largely determined by the perceived socio-economic and developmental needs. Further, its focus, broad objectives, geographical scope, themes, time horizon, methods and participation are closely interrelated, and thus a careful – but flexible – project design is needed to assure coherence among these constituents. It should be borne in mind, however, that foresight is only one of the available policy instruments, and definitely not a panacea.

Keywords: technology foresight, focus of foresight, emerging economies, project design

JEL Classification: O38