Forskning

Hi! My name is Matt. I’m interested in the future and how we can get there, together, faster, better, more counterintuitively, and while having fun. I write papers on how to do this, and make video explainers about those papers. I’m fascinated by maritime and related industries, not least because of its hyperbolic business cycles, but because of the tangled networks of actors in the sector, and make videos on those, curated here.

My core area of research is in Futures and Foresight Science. These tools are useful for producing answers to the question: “What is the future of X?” Where “X” can be just about anything of interest: From maritime, offshore, and blue economies, to organizations, technologies, sectors, militaries, or social movements. This area of research investigates planning tools such as scenario analysis, horizon scanning, innovation forecasting, technology roadmapping, systems modelling, structural analysis, Delphi studies, prediction markets, trend auditing, cross-impact analysis, morphological analysis, stress-testing and wind-tunnelling, and intelligence dashboards. These tools all have underpinning assumptions and produce different futures in the present. We can come to know these tools and improve upon them as we observe their application in practice. STS, or the Sociology of Science and Technology, provides the lens from which inquiry is conducted on these tools and the groups that use them.

 Tool application to various topics and areas of concern are in high demand from private organizations to policy makers, and I often consult and facilitate with clients and in projects that leverages my knowledge of the foresight toolbox in research project modules to help groups generate knowledge and insights about the futures they are interested in.  

I serve as an Associate Editor at the academic journal Futures and Foresight Science.