Institute For The Future

Superstructing the Next Decade: 2009 Ten-Year Forecast

We're excited to make the 2009 Ten-Year Forecast materials—Superstructing the Next Decade—available online.

What does "Superstruct" really mean, anyway? Superstruct means to build new structures that extend our reach, expand our capacity, and go beyond the limits of today’s institutions. It means to bridge, to traverse boundaries, not just of organizations, communities, or nations, but also of scale itself. It also means finding new kinds of value in new kinds of social production and new forms of social connectedness. In fact, superstructing is all about building a new level of sociability into our economic and institutional lives—and into all our projects, from securing food and shelter to governing ourselves. It's how we'll reorganize for the 21st century.

How will we go about Superstructing the Next Decade? Use our 2009 material for a guidebook—not only will you find research from the Ten-Year Forecast team, but also superstructures created by over 7000+ global players during our Superstruct game from 2008. This research delves into issues ranging from a collapsing economy paving the way for new kinds of value, to a new voice rising from the Global South plotting a new path for the next big economy, to extreme climate conditions wiping the landscape clean, to a new neuroscience presenting an extraordinary new picture of humans, and so much more.

As part of Superstructing the Next Decade we produced the following materials:

Overview

This provides an overview of the Superstruct Handbook, Signal Survey, MOTD (Map of the Decade), and Perspectives.

Handbook

The Handbook provides an introduction to the Superstruct ecologies and strategies, as well as simple directions for how to go about reading and analyzing those same ecologies and strategies.

Superstruct Ecologies

Illustrating the links among the many superstructures created by our 7000+ Superstruct players, the Superstruct Ecologies begin to depict possible future institutional landscapes.

Superstruct Matrix Card

Begin the Superstruct Strategies with this—it will give you 5 simple rules to follow as you look at superstructing your own organization or life.

Superstruct Strategies

The Superstruct game is not only a forecasting game designed to anticipate new kinds of superstructures; it’s also an experiment in superstructing. Out of the experiences of both the designers (IFTF team) and the 7000+ people who played the game, 7 basic Superstruct Strategies  emerged.

TYF Signals Survey

Using more traditional survey research methods, this year’s Signals Survey probed the edges of innovation, and the results point to waves of social innovation we can expect in the coming decade.

2009 Map of the Decade

This map blends forecasts of innovation and disruption with a handful of Superstruct ecologies—along with dozens of signals on the horizon—to create a map that features five big shifts.

Perspectives

These perspectives take a closer look at 5 of our forecasts from our 2009 Map of the Decade. Each perspective includes an analysis of the forecast, an interview with an expert, and examples of what superstructing that perspective looks like.

50-Year Outlook

The choices we make in the next decade will set the course for the century. Likewise, our visions of what the world could be in 30 or even 50 years shape the decisions we make today, both directly and indirectly. Looking long, we offer 3 scenarios.