The Pocket Universal Methods of Design, Revised and Expanded

006	Backcasting

The process of looking backward in time from an assumed set of circumstances in a future time, to better understand what could lead there, in order to explore appropriate intervention

• Backcasting relates to Scenarios: the creation and maintenance of a plurality of forward views and alternative theories of how change might unfold.
• Backcasting also relates to Visioning: the elaboration of a preferred scenario that can be used to make plans.
• Backcasting includes development of participatory approaches incorporating perspectives from diverse stakeholders.
• The management and foresight method “Three Horizons” divides the change process into three phases: now (horizon one), then (horizon three), and the interim phase between ...