Imagining better futures: using the seeds approach in an adapted Manoa method

Learn how to envision a more desirable future that is based on “seeds”, which are exciting but marginal things that are already happening in the world. Starting with the seeds, you will use a “future wheel” technique that projects what these seeds could look like in the far future and explores their significance from a social, technological, environmental, economic, political, and values perspective. You will then connect your seeds with others teams to explore a future world.

Dr. Laura Pereira

Laura is a Professor at the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her work focuses on sustainability transformations in developing country contexts, tipping points, future thinking, and food systems. She leads the “Seeding Transformative Futures for People and Nature in Africa” project and is the co-PI of the Future Ecosystems for Africa project. She is also Seeds of Good Anthropocenes project member.

Laura has been an active member of the Transformations Community and participated in the TC23 conference, where she shared her insights on social-ecological transformations and the role of futures thinking in addressing global challenges, emphasizing the need to consider “transformations towards what future(s), whose futures, and where those futures will take place” using approaches such as the IPBES Nature Futures Framework. Laura will also serve as one of the co-conveners for the upcoming Transformations Community/ESG 2025 Conference.

The Manoa mash-up method originated for use in the Seeds of Good Anthropocene’s project. It has been adapted for us in the Global Environmental Assessment- GEO6 report and in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Dr. Laura Pereira is a sustainability scientist based at the Centre for Food Policy at City University, London and the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Laura is interested in sustainability transformations in the Global South, focusing on food systems and biodiversity conservation. Laura and her colleagues wrote a paper describing this technique in the journal Ecology and Society. Here is a Video of the process.