Futures Library

Located by the entrance of our place, the library is a public space to explore new avenues, pause, read, contemplate and debate. It’s where we archive material that are a part of our current and past research for Collaborative Foresight and The Conference. The population of the Futures Library is a community effort and we invite you to suggest books that you think are missing. The Futures Library currently features 500 books.

Sections

Futures
Texts about a future, written today or in the past. We’re interested in both pondering future scenarios, and learn from how people in the past have conceived futures. Examples: 1984 by George Orwell.

Foresight
Methodologies and frameworks for helping people, teams and organisations to develop new ideas, products and concepts, and to imagine futures ahead and make transitions accordingly. Examples: Three Horizons by Bill Sharpe and Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth.

Us and Technology
On how technologies shape the world, and how we shape technologies. Texts to understanding technologies, how humans are affected by them, and ways of using ethics and morality to both shape technological development in the first place and to limit the use of them if needed. Agenda A in Media Evolution’s strategy. Examples: Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford and Staying with the Trouble by Donna J Haraway.

Systems and Sustainability
Focus on systems understanding and green transitions. Systems can be the environment, the human body, democracy, the workplace and societies. We are interested in stories about how things are connected, what happens to things when things happen to them, and new ways to organise people, businesses and communities. Agenda B in Media Evolution’s strategy. Examples: Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows, and Breaking Boundaries by Johan Rockström.

Cities and Habitats
Texts on city development, urban planning, the built environment and life in communities. Examples: How Building Learn by Stewart Brand, and Sitopia: Building Wise Cities through Food by Carolyn Steel.

Creative Development
Methodologies and examples and of how creatives of various kinds work to discover new and old ways of expressing themselves. Examples: The New Designer by Manuel Lima, and Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stephanie Posavec.

Change Management
Books on personal development, business development, organisational design, innovation and strategy. Examples: Uncertainty Mindset by Vaugn Tan, and Building the Future of Innovation on Millions of Years of Natural Intelligence by Leen Gorissen.

Origin

In the process of establishing the library, we have been in close dialogue with with our professional communtiy – both locally and globally. Using wood as material was an early principle in the design process because it's historical connection to the shipbuilding operations of the site, it's warm and tactile feel, that it can be handled by skilled and local craftsmen, and that it's circular as it can be dismantled and reused elsewhere.

The Futures Library was initiated by Media Evolution, funded by Malmö Förskönings- och planteringsförening, designed by Wingårdhs and built by Jerker inredning & Form.