Related article: From his Third World point of view, Ziauddin SARDAR has a somewhat more elaborate critique of the development of futures studies. In his essay "Colonizing the Future" from 1993, he analyses the evolution Order Isosorbide Mononitrate Purchase Isosorbide Mononitrate Online of futures studies and claims that it is increasingly becoming an instrument for the marginalisation of non-Western cultures from the future. According to Sardar, even those futurists who are inspired by non-Western cultures, tend to produce 'a grotesque parody' of non-Western thought. His article was published in the international journal "Futures" (a must Isosorbide Mononitrate Brand Name for anyone who wants to get an idea what serious futures studies are about). Rick Slaughter and Sohail Inayatullah respond to Sardar's essay in Order Isosorbide Mononitrate Online the same issue. Having later become the editor of "Futures", Buy Cheap Isosorbide Mononitrate Sardar is Isosorbide Mononitrate Er himself an example of the fact that futures studies also has room for critical people born in the Third World. A special issue of Futures edited by Colin BLACKMAN and Olugbenga ADESIDA, published Buy Isosorbide Mononitrate in 1994, was devoted to African futures studies. Adesida, an economist/information systems analyst working with the United Nations Development Programme's project "African Futures" based in Abidjan, Purchase Isosorbide Mononitrate claims there is no place where a change from ancestral worship to worship of future generations is more Buy Isosorbide Mononitrate Online necessary than Africa. This special issue takes stock of progress in the use of futures studies concepts and methodologies in Africa, and discusses how such studies could be better integrated into decision-making and planning. A long-term view and a participatory approach are seen as essential in this respect. Within the old Eastern block there were also futurists who, to some extent, could operate within the main international networks of futures studies. A prominent example is Igor BESTUZHEV-LADA, a professor of sociology who has experienced all the changes of post-war USSR. His article "A Short History of Forecasting in the USSR" in the US journal "Technological Forecasting and Social Change", gives a most thrilling description of the fields problems and achievements in the region during different phases up to 1991. For the further development of forecasting in his area, Bestuzhev-Lada recommends a normative approach focusing on global imbalances. The task is to outline Isosorbide Mononitrate Tablets an alternative civilisation able to overcome them, and the transition thereto. The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 had immense Isosorbide Mononitrate 30 Mg consequences for futures studies in Eastern and Central Europe. These are analysed in Erzsebet NOVAKY et al's book "Futures Studies in the European Ex-Socialist Countries" from 2001. Although some contributions look more like early drafts, it gives a comprehesive picture of the development of futures studies in Isosorbide Mononitrate 60 Mg the different countries involved. Even "official" futurists experienced a rather Isosorbide Mononitrate Online limited freedom during the "communist" era. The dismantling of state planning and the transition process to a market economy has, however, led to new problems. Futures researchers that were once financed by the state, have experienced dissolution and even Isosorbide Mononitrate Cr incrimination. In the early 1990s, the interest for futures studies was rather limited in most "Ex-Socialist" countries. People felt that they had had enough of detailed planning and dubious forecasts. New politicians were caught in "presentism" traps, focusing on short-term tasks only. Comprehensive strategic studies for development of these countries rarely appeared until the late 1990s, and then most often connected with the question of how to meet the EU criteria for becoming future members of the union. There is, however, a beginning optimism about a new generation of futures studies becoming increasingly demanded in the area. Hungarian futurists seem to be in the luckiest situation, now as before 1989. TRENDS Some of the most famous futurists in the public eye deal mainly with trends; they try to predict which futures are the most probable. Post-Industrial Society, Future Shock, and Megatrends are only Mononitrate Isosorbide a few of the widely diffused "trend" concepts originating from futures