is longer-term, from five to fifty years (even 1 000 years) instead of one to five years;
2. links horizon three (20–30 years) with horizon two (5–20) and horizon one (the present to
five years);
3. is committed to authentic alternative futures where each scenario is fundamentally
different from the other. When planners and economic forecasters use scenarios, they
are often mere deviations from each other;
4. is committed to multiple interpretations of reality (legitimating the role of the
unconscious, of mythology, of the spiritual, for example, instead of only views of reality for
which empirical data exists);
5. is more participatory, in that it attempts to include all types of stakeholders instead of
only powerbrokers;
6. consciously uses different ways of knowing, from drama or postcards from the future to
various games (for example, the Sarkar game [Hayward and Voros 2006], or the CLA game);
7. is more concerned with the futures process, which is as important as the elegance of the
strategic plan itself, if not more so;
8. although a technique, is also very much action-oriented, more concerned with creating
the future than simply predicting it; and
9. is as much an academic field as it is a participatory social movement