Narratives that explore uncertain events are central to a variety of future-oriented approaches ranging from planning to community visioning. Techniques to create interesting narratives, however, have been overlooked in the peer-reviewed environmental foresight literature.
The authors describe a participatory, multidimensional, pragmatic technique to generate qualitative foresight (“scenario”) narratives. They applied this technique in the Mekong region of Southeast Asia during 11 workshops conducted in five countries and one regional setting. To improve consideration of systemic connections, narratives were shared between the six settings, allowing participants to understanding cross-scale enablers and inhibitors of desired development outcomes.
A second innovative feature is elaboration of character-oriented narratives. The authors discuss how the technique responds to ongoing methodological challenges of critical inquiry, policy salience, and agency.
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