Why Us
Over the past eight years, a strong and productive collaboration has developed between Anna-Maria Kanzola and Professor Panagiotis E. Petrakis. At its core lies a shared intellectual vision: to bridge economics and foresight through a genuinely interdisciplinary and socially grounded perspective. This collaboration is not incidental, but it is built on a continuous synthesis of ideas and seek of knowledge and its limits, where different scientific traditions and methodologies are not simply combined, but meaningfully integrated to enhance our understanding of complex realities.
What distinguishes us is this deep coherence in approach. While operating within broader research teams, the conceptual nucleus of our work remains the alignment of our perspectives on the necessity of interdisciplinarity, the role of multiple epistemologies, and the importance of viewing the future through diverse analytical lenses. Our work consistently seeks to reposition economics and foresight as inherently social sciences— fields that must engage with human behavior, biology, sociology, anthropology, ecology, institutions, and collective dynamics rather than remain confined to technical abstraction.
At the same time, we bring a rare combination of academic depth and institutional experience. Through long-term involvement in large-scale research, policy-oriented initiatives, and educational innovation at both national and European levels, we have been able to translate foresight into practice. This includes the development of skill forecasting systems, policy-support tools, and interdisciplinary research frameworks that directly inform decision-making processes. Decades of academic leadership and policy engagement further provide a comprehensive understanding of structural change and institutional complexity.
Equally important is our emphasis on communication and applicability. Our work does not end at theoretical contribution; it extends to making complex ideas accessible, actionable, and socially relevant. We place particular importance on how foresight is communicated and implemented, ensuring that it contributes to practical outcomes and informed societal dialogue.
Finally, we view the future as inherently participatory. A central element of our approach is the recognition that futures cannot be designed in isolation—they must reflect collective perspectives, future generations’ rights, inclusive processes, and shared responsibility. This principle runs consistently through our work, reinforcing the idea that foresight is not only about anticipating change, but about enabling societies to actively shape it.
The Project / Research
This research is part of a broader, cumulative research trajectory that has consistently explored the intersection of foresight, economics, behavior, and complexity. It does not emerge in isolation, but builds on a series of prior contributions that have examined weak signals, scenario interaction, computational modeling, and the socio-economic foundations of future-oriented decision-making. Within this continuum, the present work advances a more integrated and conceptually mature step.
The motivation lies in a persistent limitation within existing approaches to the future. Forecasting, foresight, and imagination are often treated as separate domains, leading to partial and fragmented understandings. At the same time, increasing systemic complexity, uncertainty, and the emergence of polycrisis conditions challenge the adequacy of linear and purely probabilistic methods. This research responds by developing a unified perspective in which foresight, historicism, and imagination are understood as interdependent processes.
Historical analysis provides the structural and causal grounding necessary to interpret the present. Foresight organizes this knowledge into anticipatory frameworks. Imagination expands the horizon of possible futures beyond what can be inferred from past patterns alone. Their integration allows for a more comprehensive engagement with uncertainty, particularly in systems characterized by non-linearity and continuous transformation. Within this framework, complexity is approached as a generative condition rather than a constraint. The research introduces a quantum-inspired way of thinking as an epistemological extension, emphasizing multiplicity, interdependence, and indeterminacy in future developments. This perspective aligns with the need to move beyond deterministic models and to accommodate the coexistence of alternative trajectories.
Importantly, this synthesis is not only conceptual but also methodological. It creates the conditions for the development of new tools that combine computational techniques with foresight practices and imaginative reasoning. Approaches such as machine learning, game-theoretic simulations, and scenario interaction are not treated as ends in themselves, but as components of a broader, interdisciplinary system of understanding and anticipating change.
Ultimately, this research aims to deepen and extend futures thinking by reconnecting analytical rigor with human cognition, historical awareness, and creative exploration. It contributes to an evolving effort to reposition foresight as a dynamic, inclusive, and methodologically plural field capable of responding to the complexity of contemporary and future challenges.
