Recent developments in the world and the strong European commitment to a regulating globalisation argue in favour of a forward looking analysis. “The World in 2025” first underlines the major future trends: geopolitical transformations in terms of population, economic development, international trade and poverty. Secondly, it identifies the likely tensions: natural resources (food, energy, water and minerals), migrations or urbanisation. Finally, it defines possible transitional pathways: towards a new production and consumption model, towards new rural-urban dynamics, towards a new gender and intergenerational balance. “Rising Asia and socio-ecological transition” is the explicit sub-title that could be an inspiring source for the future strategy of the European Union.
La récente évolution du contexte mondial et les engagements européens forts pour une mondialisation maîtrisée plaident en faveur d’une analyse prospective. «Le monde en 2025» met tout d’abord en évidence les grandes tendances à venir: les transformations géopolitiques en termes de population, de développement économique, de commerce international et de pauvreté. Deuxièmement, il identifie les tensions probables: ressources naturelles (produits alimentaires, énergie, eau et minéraux), migrations ou urbanisation. Enfin, il définit les voies de transitions possibles: vers un nouveau modèle de production et de consommation, vers une nouvelle dynamique rurale-urbaine, vers un nouvel équilibre entre genres et entre générations. «La montée en puissance de l’Asie et la transition socio-écologique» est un sous-titre explicite susceptible d’inspirer la future stratégie de l’Union européenne.
The European expert group on "The World in 2025" has developed a prospective analysis based on the current state of the world and its historical evolution, including economic and societal changes and new geopolitical configurations.
This prospective exercise incorporates the demographic, economic, trade, financial, environmental, technological and social dimensions as well as the issues of migration, security and governance.
"The World in 2025" contains the contribution of the individual experts as well as scenarios outlining future developments over the next fifteen years.
METRIS
stands for Monitoring European Trends in Social Sciences and Humanities.
The aim of METRIS is to support the European Research Area (ERA) in
the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH). This is particularly
important for these sciences, because their knowledge is embedded
into national systems, and the ERA brings about novel insights and
perspectives that result from comparing national systems and situations
as well as rising above such comparisons. European level research
in SSH forms an important support for European policy-making.
This first report from a METRIS expert group identifies important new and emerging trends in social sciences and humanities in the 5 themes of the framework programme:
In addition the report highlights some themes that cut across these areas (such as migration for example) as well as some examples of cutting edge research that lie outside the thematic coverage of the Framework Programme, such as new conceptualizations of space, the rise of visual and affective themes in social sciences and themes that arise from the breaking down of the boundaries between the sciences.
It is envisaged that the reflection of expert groups will be combined with a sound monitoring system to form a powerful supporting instrument for the advancement of the ERA in SSH. It will provide for a collective understanding of the state of the art, trends, needs, challenges and research policies for SSH across Europe and in all its Member Countries, and will thus support the advancement of SSH in Europe through coordinated research efforts and coordinated research policy interventions.
The
'Highlights of the Year' publication represents a selection of activities
conducted within the programmes SSH (Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities)
and SIS (Science in Society) in 2008.
(3.6MB)
An initiative
of the Director of the "Science, Economy and Society Directorate",
Jean-Michel Baer, this seminar was organised both to encourage the
participation of humanities scholars in the SSH Work Programme and
to contribute to the Directorate’s preparation of its 2012-2013
road map. 18 anthropologists from Europe and beyond participated
in discussion on the specific contribution the discipline can make
to the programme.
Presentation by anthropologists such as Michael Herzfeld from Harvard
University, Marc Abélès from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences
Sociales, and Christina Garsten from the University of Sweden, were
followed by discussions around the following questions:
Foresight identifies
future research and innovation priorities going within and beyond
the Lisbon strategy and contributes to building a strong European
Research Area. It helps in the early identification of emerging
issues that could have far-reaching implications for European Science
and Technology in the long run. It contributes to the analysis of
changes in the global research system and their possible implications
for European research policy. The Foresight Monitoring Network (EFMN)
is a Europe-wide network inspired and financed by the European Commission
in the framework of the Foresight Knowledge Sharing Platform implemented
under the Research Framework Programme. The EFMN initiative identifies
the big scientific, technological and social challenges of tomorrow,
contributing thus to the main priorities of the socio-economic sciences
and humanities research.
Through a continuous monitoring and mapping of ongoing and emerging
Foresight activities conducted not only in Europe, but also in other
regions of the world, the EFMN project identifies “hot topics” noteworthy
for their novelty or importance and contributes to the dissemination
of this relevant information through the production of short foresight
policy briefs. It covers countries as varied as the EU Member States,
Japan, China and Korea, the US, Canada and Brazil. Those briefs
that were written between 2004 and 2007 summarize the results of
recently terminated or on-going foresight activities dealing with
crucial topics such as the hydrogen economy, the knowledge-based
development of rural economies or the sustainable exploitation of
marine resources.
Brussels
2008,
(2.6MB)
in the 7th Framework Programme, final report, 113 pages
Reflection Group, Concluding Remarks (including annexes), Brussels,
2005, EUR n° 21360, ISBN 92-894-9062-4, 94 pages