Tuesday, July 5, 2011

'Not-enough-hours-in-the-day' is a common complaint among working people - particularly people in parts of North America who would trade the culture of the working lunch, eat-at-your-desk, eat-while-you-drive, and uncompensated overtime for the more relaxed ways of Europe.  However, Europeans are now starting to complaint about 'time bandits' too.  As the growing extent of cross-cultural interaction 'exports' and 'imports' value systems and lifestyles, which of the two working cultures will prevail?  This is the question that inspired the upcoming FUTUREtakes-sponsored 'Trans-Cultural Impacts on the Future' session at World Future 2011.

This session, scheduled for Sunday, July 10 at 9:00 am, features four leading futurists - Cornelia Daheim (Germany), Shoji Mitarai (Japan), Tom Lombardo (USA), and Linda Groff (USA) - and complements the FUTUREtakes transcultural thematic issue series that has featured leading educators, think tank staff, and diplomatic staff.

The session, the second in an annual series, seeks to explore the ways in which differing value systems and perspectives of various peoples and cultures - those of Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and Native peoples - will shape your everyday life as cultures intermingle. Focus areas of these 'trans-cultural roundtables' and of the FUTUREtakes trans-cultural thematic issue series extend from work-leisure balance and leisure activities to the social contract, relationships with nature, the pace of life, sources of identity (individual or group), notions of prosperity, the ways in which leaders emerge - and yes, even planning horizons as well as perspectives on 'the future' and approaches to meeting its challenges.

World Future 2011 is scheduled for July 8-10, 2011 in Vancouver. Conference registration can be completed on the World Future Society website, www.wfs.org. For further information about the special session or about FUTUREtakes, write to info@futuretakes.org.

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