Sociology

20

Fashioning the Future

WHY FUTURE STUDIES?

When the world was fast approaching the threshold of the twenty-first century, it was gripped with a feeling that the present century would soon become part of the past.

The impending departure of the twentieth century invoked scholars to shift their orientation from the present to the future. There was increasing scholarly activity in this new terrain. From the earlier engagement (i) in unravelling the mysteries of the unknown past and creating a credible history of our ancestry, and (ii) investigating the cultural and social diversities of the Present and planning strategies to overcome development deficits, many scholars became interested in questions concerning ‘what will be’ or ‘what should be’ ...