Call for Reports and Articles | Special Issue of Journal of Futures Studies (JFS)

The Journal of Futures Studies (JFS) invites scholars to submit manuscripts of reports and research articles in the Special Issue on “Planetary Futures of Health and Wellbeing”.

Guest editors:

  • Dr. Matti Minkkinen, Information Systems Science, University of Turku
  • Dr.  Sari Puustinen, Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku

Introduction

Earth’s systems are undergoing drastic transformations due to climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and other human-caused environmental pressures. These changes are expected to introduce profound challenges for people and the rest of Earth’s life over the coming decades as various planetary system limits are crossed.  In this Special Issue we are focusing on the wide variety of ways people imagine planetary futures to inform their ambitions to produce general health and wellbeing in our societies.

We are interested in questions such as: How can people today identify new pathways for fostering the conditions and behaviours that allow human and non-human life to thrive? How can health and wellbeing for humans and other species be supported at planetary scale? What structures and actions are needed to produce a sufficient level of human wellbeing at the global level to improve our socio-ecological resilience?

We welcome authors to submit manuscripts focusing on following themes:

  • Planetary futures: philosophy, methodology, ethical considerations 
  • Novel interconnections of health, social justice, land use planning and the environment  
  • Ecological regeneration and wellbeing 
  • Futures of mobility in relation to human health
  • Cultural transformations and planetary wellbeing 
  • Humans and their technologies – impacts and effects of coupling tech with bodies
  • Societal structures and individual agency – the need for systemic change?  
  • Local and global social justice, intersectionality and wellbeing
  • Futures of lifestyles – relations to physical, mental, social and environmental health 
  • Effective governance of future health and social service systems
  • Coping with past, present and future pandemics 

Submissions

This Special Issue is related to the Futures Conference 2022, which will be held June 15–17, 2022. The Call for Reports and Articles is open and limited to the participants of the conference.

  • Reports: 3000–5000 words in length (including references). Reports are expected to provide coverage of futures studies related events (conferences, meetings, facilitated processes).
  • Articles: 4000–8000 words in length (including references). Articles are expected to make novel contributions to the futures studies field, build on the corpus of futures literature, be evidentially strong and develop clear themes and arguments. Articles are double-blind peer reviewed.

To stimulate the systematic use and growth of futures literature, one of the criteria for publishing in the journal is indicating how the article relates to others in the futures literature. Papers should refer to materials published in this journal and in the other journals in the futures field (Journal of Futures Studies, Futures, Foresight, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, The European Journal of Futures Research, World Future Review, On the Horizon) as well as futures material contained in books, monographs, other field related journals.

> Submissions and Author Guidelines

Key dates

Deadline to submission of the reports and research articles:
30 September 2022

Tentative Date of Publication:
June 2023

Contact details for questions:

Finland Futures Research Centre
Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Finland

Contact us via: futuresconference@utu.fi