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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the role of American culture in social foresight as practiced by American futurists. It also seeks to describe how American culture has been expropriated by corporate culture, which is global. Finally, the paper seeks to depict various scenarios of the future of the USA and to consider an imperative of the futurist to reform the role of the professional futurist consultant in the capacity of social foresight that sets as its chief aim the transformation of business practice towards a sustainable, restorative economy.

The paper is a critical approach to American and corporate culture by exposing major assumptions behind business ideology and practice. It also applies the same critical approach to the way futures has been practiced within the capitalist paradigm during the past 50 years. It is a civilisational critique that also points towards an integral solution for sustainable, restorative business practice.

It was found that superficial efforts at sustainable solutions will not be enough to manage the impending collapse of industrial civilization. What is required is a wholesale transformation that is indicative of a paradigm shift towards a natural capitalism in which business practice is totally guided by sustainability and restoration of the natural systems rather than mere, narrowly focused “bottom line” ideology. It finds that social foresight can play a positive role in directing this transition and crisis of humanity.

Hopefully, the paper will contribute to the progress of futures towards a more specifically focused matter of social foresight. It should help futurists to recognize their leadership role, which should guide business entrepreneurs and social innovation towards the realization of sustainability and restoration. At the same time, it emphasizes the need to embrace rather than shun activism, to link with other progressives who seek to redefine the relationship of government and business through democratic means. The paper emphasizes the need to protect and restore a future that is being systematically undermined and destroyed.

This paper aims to expand on the findings of the SOPIFF project by identifying eight futures schools of thought, and then analyze and critique these through the integral futures (IF) framework. This paper, Part I, also aims to focus on the upper quadrants of the IF framework.

The paper adapts Wilber's integral theory to clarify various philosophical orientations towards the future. It also adapts Polak's approach to futures as a matter of “social critique and reconstruction”; however, here the approach is global, civilizational, and integral, so it proposes civilizational critique and integral reconstruction as a method for evaluating futures schools of thought.

The IF framework has proved to be a valuable theoretical and analytical tool since it clarifies not only orientations to the future but also demonstrates the dynamic lines of development and interactions throughout all four quadrants, illustrating how the four‐quadrant approach is an effective framework for understanding the crisis of civilization and the response needed at this time in history to bring about a preferred future.

The paper draws and expands upon the findings of the SOPIFF project as a way to better understand the “global problematique.” Thus, this paper suggests some implications of that research and proposes the integral futures framework as a way to interpret research findings. Future research should attempt to develop and apply the IF framework similarly in order to realize a sustainable, integrally‐informed image of the future of human civilization.

An integrally‐informed approach to futures and foresight studies should help develop and improve futures methodology/practices in general. The IF framework helps to understand philosophical orientations underlying practices and applications.

This application of the IF framework to various mainstream futures schools of thought is original. It should help futurists to see and interpret the bigger picture regarding images of the future in a civilizational context by revealing the “crack” in the modern image of the future, how it relates to the current world crisis, and what is needed to heal the crack so that a new, more integrally‐informed, sustainable image of the future can emerge.

The ‘Transition Town’ (TT) movement pioneered by Rob Hopkins initially in Kinsale (Ireland) and Totnes (United Kingdom) has become the fastest growing environmental movement in the global north (Hopkins, 2008). With over 30 official TT initiatives in the United Kingdom, the concept is now spreading into New Zealand, Canada, and many more countries.¹ The movement starts from two premises: (i) the reality and implications of rapid and potentially catastrophic climate change; (ii) the reality of ‘peak oil’ – an imminent, permanent short fall in oil supply, increasing year on year with massive geo-political, economic and social consequences.² Whilst supporting national and multilateral efforts to reduce emissions and to develop new energy technologies and infrastructures, TT leaves climate change protest to environmental campaigning groups, NGOs and activists oriented towards a global civil society. Acknowledging the need for ‘government and business responses [to climate change and peak oil] at all levels’, the role of TT is to ‘create [a] sense of anticipation, elation and a collective call to adventure’ and that this grass-roots bottom-up, local activism could potentially prepare the way for more directly political action at the level of national government (Hopkins, 2008, p. 15).

The paper aims to introduce the first iteration of an international research project into the “state of play” in the futures field (SoPiFF) using methodology developed at the Australian Foresight Institute (AFI).

The paper outlines the overall approach and the methods it employed, along with some implications and emerging themes from this first iteration.

The paper casts new light on patterns of activity in the futures/foresight arena that, in turn, lead to policy questions, including those of purpose and effectiveness.

The SoPiFF project is of interest not only for its early results, but also for the use of the metascanning methodology outlined here. At one level it draws attention to the nature of the foresight practitioner's toolkit. At another it may also help to guide decisions about future resourcing options and the nature of training that is offered within the domain.

Examines the impact of humans on the Earth, and how natural resources are related to economic wellbeing. Links evolution and increases in population to natural causes. Discusses the co‐evolution of nature and society, and the unsustainable system that humans have created. Shows how incompatible a market economy is with the preservation of the environment and biodiversity. Concludes that nature will have an impact on policy and cites some examples of this in the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to give an introductory overview of the special issue of On the Horizon (OTH) on responses to the author's book, The Biggest Wake‐up Call in History (BWCH).

The author does not comment on all the contributions to this special issue, but summarises his view of some of the most valuable suggestions for further work that have been put forward.

The author's view is that, overall, these contributions to the special issue of OTH more than fulfil the goal of commenting on and, in some cases, extending the core concerns of BWCH.

If the BWCH and the papers presented in this special issue can play even a small part in the process of waking up and taking responsibility then people can all breathe a little easier. People can look their kids in the eye and know that they know the present generation did what was required as well as it could.