Publications

Written by Early Futures:

The Entangled Future
An illustrated future studies book for children.
Written and Illustrated by: Heidi Gustafson
Preview Now! (.pdf) (first half only)

Excerpt:
“People didn’t like being afraid, so some voices in the air tried to make it better. The voices said nobody was allowed to use weapons, nobody was allowed to drive cars and nobody was allowed to use anything sharp. Everything in the arc of the future became totally and completely safe!”

Edited by Early Futures, Written By Children:

What We Know About Being Here
Limited edition, staple-bound. $20.00.
SOLD OUT, .PDF VERSION AVAILABLE

What We Know About Being Here, is a publication of stories told and illustrated by four- and-five-year-olds. These are profound philosophical and futures stories, filled with poetic, surprising insight.

Excerpt from The Earth Needs People, By Riva Zellars, age 5:
“People are just people and they live for just a little bit. Then they live in a graveyard and when their bones disappear their dreams come true. I want to live a little first before my dreams come true.”

Children’s Think Tank Research Summaries
Limited edition, staple-bound. Free.
.PDF ONLY VERSION AVAILABLE

An introductory publication about the research undertaken by five- to ten-year-olds in the Children’s Think Tank. Topics include stages of the human spirit, mythologies, what’s at the edge of the universe and more.

Excerpt from Ellie Cohen’s (age eight) Research:
“I get to find everything out by astral projecting. Astral projecting allows you to find the answers that you need by travelling to the place…You can do anything when you are astral projecting as long as it is okay with your imagination. You get to know things you normally wouldn’t know.”

 

Articles Written by Heidi Gustafson:

Relational Futures in Preschool (.pdf)
Journal of Future Studies, Vol. 15, No.4, June 2011
Abstract: This paper discusses the importance of preschool education in relation to futures teaching and critical discourse. I will discuss preschool as a functioning, unparallel space that can help define futures oriented education. By outlining preschoolers as presently active collaborators in future worlds as opposed to merely inhabitants of future worlds, this discussion merges integral futures thinking with the surrealism found in the dialect of four-year-olds; revealing a process of education which acts towards futures while living them, and opens possibilities for each of us as we emerge from the shadows of modern education.