出版社：Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
摘要：The analysis of the future and taking decisions related to the tendencies of the detectable technological and social change in our present time has turned into a basic tool in the scientific-technological policy of the contemporary societies. The technological development can not be improvised: technologies have a long gestation period and public policies about science and technology should establish some financing guidelines that make possible to develop a technological path which may be considered as strategic. At the same time, the technological advances generate different kind of risks and the citizens who live in advanced democratic societies claim to participate in the scientific-technological policy, not only through their legitimate political representatives but also through their own behaviour like consumers. In this article, the basic dimensions of the denominated Futures Studies are analyzed, the most outstanding contributions and the actual situation of the prospective investigations in Spain and The European Union.
关键词：Prospective;future studies;strategic planning;social change and social trends;Prospectiva;estudios de futuro;planificación estratégica;cambio social;tendencias sociales
