Impact Trust • Working glossary
Colonised imaginations / decolonising futures
Dominant visions of the future tend to reflect Western, industrial, growth-oriented assumptions.
Details
Our Take
A call for communities to imagine futures from their own traditions and values. 'Imperial ways of knowing' restrict what counts as legitimate knowledge. The question is not whether you do foresight, but whose imagination sets the boundaries of what counts as a plausible or desirable future. Important for ensuring programmes do not import Northern European frameworks uncritically.
Examples of Use
UNESCO, postcolonial theory, Global South futures practitioners
Synonyms/Variants
Decolonial futures; Pluriversal futures, Indigenous futurism
Typical everyday wording
Whose vision of the future are we working from?
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