about us

The future can not be predicted.

However, each of us has a role in the construction of whatever futures do come to pass. Humans have never before had more influence over the futures of our environment, our biology, and indeed, of all life. Futures studies encourages the contemplation of many possible futures, and facilitates dialogue between groups with competing or conflicting visions.

The Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies (Hawaii Futures), established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 01971, is one of the world's most renowned institutions for futures research, consulting, and education. It has been instrumental in the training of two generations of futurists, in the development and spread of judicial foresight, and in bringing foresight and futures thinking to organizations, agenices, and businesses around the world. The Center, in its theories, methods, design and praxis strives to be THE LIVING EMBODIMENT OF FUTURES STUDIES.

Activities of Hawaii Futures are overseen by pioneer futurist Jim Dator, who for nearly a half century has sculpted the very discipline of futures studies. In addition to ongoing professorship, Dator has acted as Secretary General of the World Futures Studies Federation, produced numerous publications on futures studies and emergent issues, and consulted with governmental, military, business, educational, religious, and public-interest organizations in over 40 countries.

about Jim Dator Professor, and Director of the Hawai'i Research Center for Futures Studies Department of Political Science University of Hawaii at Manoa (The Center is also an Affiliate Campus of the International Space University, Strasbourg, France) Mailing Address: University of Hawaii 2424 Maile Way, Saunders 632 Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA Phone: 1-808-956-6601 Fax: 1-808-956-2889 Email: dator@hawaii.edu http://www.futures.hawaii.edu

 

Also:

Co-Director, Space & Society Department
International Space University, Strasbourg, France.

Fellow and member of the Executive Council of the
World Academy of Art & Science.

Secretary General/President of the
World Futures Studies Federation, 1983-93.

Member of Phi Beta Kappa, Danforth Fellow,
Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and Fulbright Fellow.
Affiliate faculty member, UHM:
Public Administration Program

Architecture Doctorate Program, School of Architecture

Center for Japanese Studies, School of Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Studies

 

 

 

Education:

Stetson University (BA, Cum Laude, in Ancient and Medieval History & Philosophy), 1954

The University of Pennsylvania (MA, Political Science), 1955

The American University (PhD, Political Science), 1959

Virginia Theological Seminary (Certificate in History, Systematic Theology, & Ethics), 1958

Yale University Institute of Far Eastern Languages (Certificate in Japanese), 1960

Post-doctoral study at the University of Michigan (linguistics, 1960; survey research, 1964), and Southern Methodist University (mathematics for political science), 1965

 

Three major areas of specialization:

Futures studies (especially the design of new political institutions [for space settlements, as well as Earth], and the futures of law, education, and technology); the political-economic futures of North America, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands; and the politics of media.

Before coming to the University of Hawaii in 1969, he taught at Rikkyo University (in Tokyo, Japan, for six years), Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Maryland. He also spent two years as Head of the Futures Project, Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TV Ontario), Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto. Every Spring, 1975-1988, he co-directed the two-week annual Futures Course at the Inter University Center for Post Graduate Studies, Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia

 

Major Research and Consulting Activities:

He was an advisor to the Hawaii State Commission for the Year 2000, and has consulted with state futures commissions for Florida, Illinois, and Oregon. He has been a futures consultant for the Federal Judicial Center and several Federal district courts; for the state judiciaries of Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, and Virginia; and for the national judiciaries of New Zealand, Singapore, and the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as the American Bar Association, the American Judicature Society, and numerous state bar associations, law firms, and other legal organizations.

He has also consulted extensively with other governmental, military, business, educational, religious, and especially many nonprofit, public-interest organizations worldwide, and has lectured to several thousand general, professional, governmental, business, as well as futurist, audiences throughout the United States and Canada, and in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, England, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Israel Italy, Japan, Korea (North and South), Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and Yugoslavia.

He is editor or editorial board member of the following journals: Foresight, Futures, Futures Research Quarterly, Journal of Futures Studies, On the Horizon, Technological Forecasting and Social Change.

 

His more recent books are:

Democracy and Futures. (with Mika Mannermaa and Paula Tiihonen). Helsinki: Parliament of Finland, 2006

Fairness, Globalization and Public Institutions: East Asia and Beyond.(with Dick Pratt and Yongseok Seo). University of Hawaii Press, 2006

 

Advancing Futures: Futures Studies in Higher Education. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002 (Editor and contributor).

Recently Published Articles in books or journals:

"The futures of information, literacy and lifetime learning: A symphonic meditation," Reference Services Review," Vol. 34, No. 4, 2006, pp.471-.

"Will America ever become a democracy?" in Mika Mannermaa, Jim Dator and Paula Tiihonen, eds., Democracy and Futures. Helsinki: Parliament of Finland, 2006, pp. 61-68.

"Learning to Seek: Globalization, Governance, and the Futures of Higher Education," special issue of Peace and Policy, Vol. 11, 2006, edited with Walter Truett Anderson and Majid Tehranian

"Alternative futures for K-Waves," in Tessaleno Devezas, ed., Kondratieff Waves, Warfare and World Security. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2006, pp. 311-317.

"Campus Futures," published simultaneously in Planning for Higher Education (Journal of the Society for College and University Planners), Vol. 34, No. 3, April-June 2006, pp. 45-48; Business Officer (Journal of the National Association of College and University Business Officers), Vol. 39, No. 10, April 2006, pp. 24-17; and Facilities Manager (Journal of the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers), Vol. 22, No. 2, March/April 2006, pp. 24-27.

"Korea as the wave of a future: The emerging Dream Society of icons and aesthetic experience" (with Yongseok Seo), Papers of the British Association for Korean Studies, Vol. 10. 2005, pp. 1-21. Also in Journal of Futures Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1,August 2004, pp. 31-44.

"Universities without 'quality' and quality without 'universities," On the Horizon, Vol. 13, No. 4, 2005, pp. 199-215. (Voted the outstanding paper for 2006)

"The WFSF and I," Futures, Vol.37, No. 5, June 2005, pp. 371-385.

"Assuming 'responsibility for our rose,'" in Jouni Paavola and Ian Lowe, eds., Environmental Values in a Globalising World: Nature, Justice and Governance. London: Routledge, 2005, Chapter 13.

"Reading History: Comment on Chenoweth and Feitelson, Futures, Vol. 37,No. 1, February 2005, pp. 83-86.

"De-Colonizing the Future," Journal of Futures Studies, Vol. 9 No. 3, February 2005, pp. 93-104, as part of their "Classics in futures studies" series. Republished from Andrew Spekke, ed., The Next 25 Years, Washington: World Future Society, 1975

"Universities without 'Quality' and Quality without 'Universities'," in Rob Carmichael, ed., Quality in a Time of Change. Melbourne: Australian Universities Quality Agency, 2004, pp. 1-19.

"Judicial Leadership Scenario," (with Sharon Rodgers), in Kathleen Sampson, ed., Handbook for Judges: An anthology of inspirational and educational readings. Chicago: American Judicature Society, 2004, pp. 225-231 (Excerpted from Jim Dator and Sharon Rodgers, Alternative Futures for the State Courts of 2020. Chicago: American Judicature Society, 1991.

"The Heretic: Visions, Values, Technologies and Schools," in Aharon Aviram and Janice Richardson, eds., Upon What Does the Turtle Stand? Rethinking Education for the Digital Age. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004, pp. 241-250.

"Korea as the wave of a future: The emerging Dream Society of icons and aesthetic experience," with Yongseok Seo, Journal of Futures Studies, August 2004

 

"Futures of Identity, Racism, and Diversity," Journal of Futures Studies, February 2004, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 47-54

 

"Mortgage Banking for the New American Empire, and other futures," Foresight, Vol. 6 No. 1, 2004, pp. 13-18

"Teaching futures studies: Some lessons learned," Journal of Futures Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, February 2003, pp. 1-6.

"Some in power, some in pain: A symphonic meditation on humanity and space," in Michael Rycroft, ed., Beyond the International Space Station: The future of human spaceflight. Dodrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, pp. 21-28.

"Visions, values, technologies and schools," On the Horizon, Vol. 10, No. 4, 2002, pp. 19-24.

"Artilectual salutations," Journal of Futures Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, November 2001, 87-92.

"Closing the deal: How to make organizations act on futures research," (with Jerome Glenn and Theodore Gordon), Foresight, Vol. 3, No. 3, June 2001, 177-189.

"The last supper of the dinosaurs, Redux," Journal of Futures Studies, Vol. 5, No. 4, May 2001, 93-110.

"Judicial governance of the Long Blur," Futures, Vol. 33, No. 2, March 2001, 181-197.

about other futures folks

Dick Barber, Bindi Borg, Mathew Bradford, Stuart Candy, Joe Dolan, Jake Dunagan, Maria Guido, David Hagino, Debora Halbert, Jan Huston, Chris Jones, Jill Keesbury, Dede Letts, Ward Mardfin, Barbara Moir, Mark Nickum, George Omen, Vincent Pollard, Charles Portwood, Sharon Rodgers, Wendy Schultz, Takahiro Suzuki, Michael Sysiuk, Shunichi Takekawa, Sally Taylor, Salvador Valadez, Beth Walters, Anne Witebsky

Greg Aanestad, Marcelino Actouka, Chris Alper, Yoshihisa Amae, Lloyd Asato, Henry T. K. Au , Michael Babich, Toby Bailin, Dick Barber, Christopher Baruffi, Frecia Basilio, Kirk Bergstrom, Bill Buevens, Francine Blume, Michelle Bowman, Mark Bradley, Robin Brandt, Tom Brandt, David Brier, Jim Brock, Michael Buckley, Mitchell Cabral, Grace Caligtan, Cyrus Camp, Stuart Candy, Rosie Chang, Carolyn Ciccarelli, Joshua Cooper, Bill Danks, Malia Kupahu Davidson, Phil Dewan, Yury Di Pasquale, Kip Dooley, Shannon Dorsey, Robert Dziublowski, Gary Forth, Jenny Miller Garmendia, Fredrick Galtung, Barry Gills, Adrianne Greenlees, Robert Grossman, Keith Hamada, Charles Heaukulani, Dean Higuchi, Jan Huston, Sohail Inayatullah, Fred James, Chris Jones, Mark Justman, Darien Kadens, Kenn Kassman, Shawn Kelley, Stephen Kiser, Chris Klutz, Kelly Kraemer, Akiyo Kuramochi, Trudi Lang, Gary Lawler, Avigal Lemberger, Liza Lockard, Kaipo Lum, Sohail Mahmood, David Mason, Phil McNally, Takashi Mita, James Monma, Takuya Murata, Devin Nordberg, Jonathan Peck, Ramsey Pedersen, Anthony Pennings, Anna Powell, James Rae, Bob Reeves, Sue Reid, Aaron Rosa, Richard Rose, Miriam Rosenthal, Samporn Sangchai, Richard Scarce, Michael Scheiern, Wendy Schultz, Yongseok Seo, Jordi Serra, Susan Shawhan, Christa Slaton, David Smith, Siula Solomona, Rich Somerville, Hyeonju Son, Jesse Souki, Tony Stevenson, Betty Strom, Takahiro Suzuki, Chandra Tamarisa, Pam Tevebaugh, Donald Toews, David Thorp, Francis Tuifao, S. P. Udayakumar, Susan Umetsu, Salvador Valadez, Ronald Williams, Alita Wall, Darlene Williams, Charles Willson, Anne Witebsky, Tom Worth, Wayne Yasutomi, Anna Yue, Jan Zastrow, Chris Zivalich.

Robert Alm, James Anthony, David Arakawa, Dennis Arakaki, Lloyd Asato, Summer Banner, Lynda Belcher, Aeza Bolo, Bruce Bikle, Diane Borchart, Sarah Bott, Akili Calhoun, Fred Chaves, Wayson Chow, Betsy Christian, Celia Chu, Deborah Coombs, Carlice Cornett, Marie Couch, Bessie Cousar, Robert Crawley, Karen Curtis, Mike Dahilig, William Dang, Adam Dykes, Linda Ekroth, Libby Ellet, Bonnie Fackre, Kale Feldman, Connie Fisher, Theresa Flood, Susan Foster, Cauleen Glass, Louann Guanson, David Hagino, Susan Harding, Ed Henry, Ted Hong, Richard Hopper, Glenn Horio, Frank Hutchinson, Charles Impastato, Diane Kahanu, Dexter Kaiama, Alvin Kaohu, Kris Kaupalolo, Sandra Kim, Bryan Klum, Ken Kobayashi, Roland Kotani, Dennis Kull, Sanji Kumar, Bruce Lagareta, Greg Laliberte, John Leifhelm, Dede Letts, Kaipo Lum, Linda Luke, Richard Ma, Sarita MacLeod, Rodney Maile, Tom Mandel, Jim Mansfield, David Mason, Bill McMahon, Robert McNamara, Glenda Naito, Paul Nakamura, Lloyd Nakata, Karen Olovsson, Gail Paik, Glen Pascual, Mae Pattison, Dana Peterson, Matt Rohrer, Barbara Ryan, Virginia Ann Sablan, Nelson Santiago, Barry Sato, Malia Scanlan, Suzanne Schapiro, Doug Seelig, Elizabeth Shupe, Douglas A Stepina, Alvin Takahashi, Mark Takai, Chris Uebelein, Lorene Walker, Dawn Wasson, Kore Waymack, Tina Weatherby, Malcomb Webb, Dan Wedemeyer, Andrea Wells, George Wilkins

about other stuff

2006 Annual Report to the Hawaii State Legislature

Hawaii Futures operates within the Department of Political Science of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and is an affiliate campus of the International Space University.

Aloha.