From forecasting to ‘la prospective’ a new way of looking at futures

Although‘La Prospective’is not well known in the Anglo-Saxon forecasting literature, it has been for many years widely used in France and other Latin countries with considerable success. Lately, because of the inaccuracy of forecasting and the large forecasting errors that have been experienced, it is suggested that the Prospective approach can be used as a way of dealing with these problems. The main characteristics of‘La Prospective’are that it does not look at the future as a continuation of the past but rather as the outcome of the wishes of various actors and the constraints imposed on them by the environment. Its purpose is to assist in creating alternative futures and then select some alternative that allows for maximum freedom of action.