The evolution of Foresight: What evidence is there in scientific publications?

This study examines the recent evolution of Foresight as a well-recognized tool for long-term policy and strategy making and discusses the future directions the activity might take. The science mapping approach is used for the analysis. Drawing on big data, science mapping provides an evolutionary overview of scientific domains across time and helps to identify patterns showing the research agenda and directions of development of those domains. In the present study, we demonstrate the use of the science mapping approach with the case of the Foresight field. The results of our analysis confirm earlier academic studies on the evolution of Foresight; hence show the validity of the science mapping approach. Besides demonstrating the evolution of the field with the scientific publications in the last couple of decades, the study seeks scientific evidence for the next generations of Foresight to emerge towards the 2030s.