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Biography
Balcom Raleigh is an interdisciplinary doctoral researcher interested in broadening societal understanding of how the futures people imagine are linked to their capabilities to perceive potential change and innovate. As a champion of co-design of research interventions and reflexive co-inquiry, his motto is: ‘No extractive research.’
He is co-chair to the UNESCO Chair on Learning for Transformation and Planetary Futures at University of Turku; VP (2025-2026), Past President (2023-2024), and VP (2021-2022) of Foresight Europe Network; and occasional independent consultant to international organizations including OECD (2022), UNESCO (2023), WHO (2023), and UNEP (2021-'22; and 2024).
His PhD topic is complexity, transformation, futures literacy, and sustainability innovation. He works with sustainability innovators who are working to address the climate emergency to nurture futures literacy. Through co-inquiry, participatory action research, and principles of communities of practice, these engagements lead to mutually beneficial understandings of how futures literacy materializes and functions for specific groups.
He started at Finland Futures Research Centre in June 2015 as Millennium Project Intern and continued as a Research Assistant until becoming a Project Researcher in May 2017. In that role, he was part of several research project teams at the centre and successfully won funding and led the Futures Literacy across the Deep (FLxDeep) initiative from June 2019 to December 2020. In 2023, he turned his attention to consulting roles and his doctoral research.
Before becoming an academic researcher, he worked in the field of online communications (2000-2014) for large and small companies and Macalester College (St. Paul, Minnesota). This work involved creating and managing e-newsletters, websites, online game-based training, and social media presences.
He has a master’s degree in Futures Studies (Turku School of Economics - University of Turku, May 2017). His masters thesis uses action research to iteratively develop a role-driven ‘futuring game’ called Metaphor Molecule. It has since been used as a reframing exercise in a variety of Futures Literacy Labs and as the basis for the BioEcoJust Game developed in the same-named project to enable reflection upon existing and emergent BioEthos.
Teaching
Balcom Raleigh was responsible teacher of FUTULAB3 Participatory Scenario Planning (2020-2022). This course gives students practical experience in participatory scenario planning with an actual case organization. He co-taught the preceding version of the course, Scenario Thinking, with Amos Taylor in 2019; and with Markku Wilenius and Amos Taylor in 2018.
He co-designed and co-taught the Finland Futures Academy Summer School (2017), organized as a UNESCO MOST Futures Literacy Lab, on the topic of Complex Futures of Human Settlements.
His pedagogical interest is in developing experience-driven education, communities of iniquiry, participatory action research, and knowledge co-creation.
Research
Balcom Raleigh’s PhD research is about futures literacy and climate change innovation. It takes an interventionist research approach to explore the interrelations between complexity, transformation, capabilities, and imagination in sustainability innovation processes which are aimed at addressing the climate emergency. His PhD supervisors are Dr. Katriina Siivonen (University of Turku) and Dr. Riel Miller (formerly at UNESCO, currently a research fellow at several institutions). He is also part of the Futures Literacy for Business Renewal (FuLiBRe) project that explores these research themes with a focus on co-creating futures literacy games as learning spaces in innovation networks.
He has been part of the following research teams (during the following timeframes):
- SUSCON (2021-2022), funded by Business Finland, aimed at fostering sustainable innovation in shipbuilding networks. He was part of the foresight team and led work on introducing futures literacy to project partners.
- Disruption Lab of the Centre for Collaborative Reserach (2021) placing attention on how futures literacy is related to the concept of disruptions in business thinking.
- EIT Climate-KIC Deep Demonstration on Long-Termism (June 2019 - 2021) - a consortium seeking to foster long-termism in finance, politics, business and wider society as a means to raising collective ambition and prioritisation of addressing severe long-term consequences of climate change.
- Futures Literacy across the Deep (FLxDeep) funded by EIT Climate KIC (June 2019-2020) was anchored in the Deep Demonstration on Long-termism. In 2020, FLxDeep was a consortium of researchers, educators, and foresight practitioners at six partner organizations located in five European nations conducting a variety of cutting edge experiments for introducing futures literacy in system innovation processes (see ty.fi/flxdeep, 2019-2020).
- Bioeconomy and Justice (BioEcoJust), funded by Academy of Finland (January 2018 to December 2020), explored justice and ethical issues that could arise from a full transition to bioeconomy up until year 2125.
- Future Potentials of Big Data for European Growth Corridor Development targeted analysis funded by ESPON (May 2018 to August 2019) experimenting with data sources and a conceptual framework from geography to explore possible uses for big data to inform multi-nation, multi-scale policymaking concerning mobility corridors in Europe.
- Futures of Cities and Communities (May 2016 to December 2017) project focusing on complexity and futures of mobility in Turku 2050.
- Benchmarking International Master's Degree Programs in Futures Studies (January to March 2016) which involved desk research to identify exceptional masters' programs for comparison, internal interviews to explore program development ideas, and an internal workshop.
- Millennium Project's Future of Work/Technology 2050 (June to December 2015), a delphi study exporing the potential impacts of AI and 'General AI' on work.
- NeoCarbon Energy Project funded as a Tekes strategic opening (June to August 2015) exploring pathways toward emissions-free energy systems by 2050.