Regional futures, methodological tools, uncertain, complex, contested

In recent years, there has been an increased interest among scholars in related academic communities, such as economic geography, regional studies, sustainability transitions, organisation and management studies, Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS), and future studies, to analyse new imagined futures that are just, socially desirable, and sustainable. While regions promote alternative and promising regional futures and development models, they also face decline, despair, and hopelessness due to the negative experiences of the past. Particularly, there is a need to uncover the underlying intertemporal tensions when regional actors in the present and the future hold past actors responsible for the structural disadvantages they face due to decisions made in the past. There is also a need to examine how the historical legacies of irresponsible decision-making by regional actors in the past affect the present and the future. Several studies within the above-mentioned academic communities have also outlined promising research agendas, charting novel research questions, theoretical frameworks, and relevant policy tools that can be utilised to study uncertain and contested regional futures. There are new emerging opportunities to diversify and move away from established research methodologies such as expert semi-structured interviews, historical archival research, foresight and future planning tools, scenario modelling, future orinted socio-technical pathways, forecasting, back casting-oriented and roadmap development workshops, storytelling and narratives, speculative fictions to recent emphasis on the use of Large Language Models (LLMs). However, there is a need to consolidate the vast body of academic knowledge in the different scholarly communities and outline new “Methodological toolboxes” that can be utilized to analyse uncertain regional futures. This presentation outlines the first step in reviewing the state of the art of the literature across different academic communities, examining uncertain futures, and identifying lessons that can be incorporated to advance research in the regional studies and economic geography community. It also outlines the ethical and societal dilemmas and the role of the researcher’s reflexivity in studying complex and contested regional futures. The presentation outlines future research opportunities for diversifying methodological techniques to study complex, uncertain, and contested regional futures.