Probing Futures, Acting Today: Unlocking the interplay between imagining alternative futures and future-making practices

The dissertation Probing Futures, Acting Today by Caroline Maessen explores how organisations can imagine alternative futures to change everyday practices and address complex societal challenges. Organisations often constrain their imagination to conventional futures through linear thinking, which hinders effective responses to issues like climate change and social inequality. Maessen investigates why it is difficult for organisations to connect with unconventional futures and align present actions with them. She emphasises the importance of "probing futures," a practice that introduces future artifacts to stimulate dialogue and imagination about possible futures, and to make hidden patterns visible. This process of experimenting, sensing, and responding helps organisations to bridge imagined futures and current actions. The findings show that this way of acting provokes discomfort and retreating responses, especially when stretching imagination sideways. Three empirical studies in (semi)public organisations demonstrate how psychological discomfort can be endured, how relational and "as-if real" approaches support future exploration, and how scaffolding practices are both cognitively and relationally oriented. Maessen advocates for a more dynamic, experiential approach to futures that embraces uncertainty and encourages diverse perspectives. The research offers practical recommendations for creative professionals and educators in higher education.