Transformational Adaptation through Future Design

Against the pressing need to properly formulate and implement transformational adaptation (TA) that addresses the fundamental vulnerabilities of communities, a simple, cost-effective prototype to formulate TA has not yet been established. Among the various challenges for TA identified by previous studies, the following three are key components: (i) Neutralizing power asymmetries to ensure genuine co-creation, (ii) Participants’ proactive and substantive understanding of the scientific information, and (iii) Consensus in flexible understanding of uncertainty and feasibility. In recent years, Future Design (FD), an innovating method for changing people's mindsets based on co-created future vision by participants from the standpoint of future, is gaining global attention. Among various practices conducted worldwide, this study applied FD for TA policymaking for the first time in collaboration with local governments and the agricultural sector, with some tunings of conventional FD style to address the abovementioned three barriers. The result shows high potential of FD to facilitate open vigorous communication among various stakeholders, liberated from the various constraints surrounding them in the present. This also promoted them with reflexive participation in workshop with active learning of scientific information to reach satisfactory consensus. The used FD framework is widely applicable as a new method for TA policymaking with citizen participation, independent of regional characteristics, scale, vertical level of policymaking, and is not sector specific.