About

Postnormal Times is one of the main projects and focus areas of The Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies. Here's what our friends and colleagues say about postnormal times:
Jerry Ravetz Jerry Ravetz Originator of Postnormal Science (PNS) theory "PNT: to boldly go where no PNS person has gone before" About, People
Maya Van Leemput Maya Van Leemput Senior Fellow, CPPFS "My relation to PNT Theory, although not quite chaotic, is so complex and contradictory that I would call it postnormal" About
Ziauddin Sardar Ziauddin Sardar Director, CPPFS "Working on PNT theory is as exhilarating now as it was when I first started thinking about it almost a decade ago" About, People
Dr Wendy L Schultz Wendy Schultz Director, Infinite Futures "A complex adaptive response to chaos requires novel, transformative, decisive action. Futures thinking helps create that." About, People
Jordi Serra del Pino Jordi Serra del Pino Research Director, CPPFS "PNT Theory offers a promising way to make sense of change in the present world" About, People
Jim Dator Jim Dator Godfather of Futures Studies "Nothing but black swans now, surfing tsunami of change" About, People
Shirin Elahi Shirin Elahi Managing Director, Scenarios Architecture "Postnormal times mean a time where tomorrow will not look like today ... but it could well look similar to yester yesterday, for some or many of us" About, People
Shamim Miah Shamim Miah Senior Fellow, CPPFS "PNT provides the critical tools to make sense of past complexities, the current chaotic states and future contradictions" About, People
John A. Sweeney John A. Sweeney Co-founder, CPPFS "PNT has become more than just a model for thinking about change in the present and future(s); it has mutated into a movement for enacting change" About, People
Linda Hyökki Linda Hyökki Fellow, CPPFS "When you wake up every morning and open social media, you think "What next?!" PNT assures me that there is a way to get back some control over our futures" About
Scott Jordan Scott Jordan Assistant Director, CPPFS "PNT is a gulp of air for one eyes deep in water. It reminds us of the instability of the world and gives us a new way to think, so that maybe we can change it" About, People
Gabrielle Donnelly Gabrielle Donnelly Managing Editor, World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research "As a scholar and practitioner of social creativity and change, postnormal times provides an invaluable lens for collectively navigating the contradictions, chaos, and complexities shaping our current era" About, People
Mohammad Abdul Aziz Mohammad Abdul Aziz former Deputy Director, CPPFS "Most planning and policy is based on what we consider to be normal from our past experiences. Now it is necessary to deliberate on the postnormal – to take contradictions, complexity and chaos into consideration" About, People
Alfonso Montuori Alfonso Montuori Professor, California Institute of Integral Studies "Jose Ortega y Gasset wrote that 'We don’t know what’s going on, and that’s exactly what is going on.' In that richly contradictory spirit, PNT theory offers a generative entry point for approaching our complex and chaotic times. It is appropriately humble while also recognizing the need to be boldly creative" About, People
Ted Fuller Ted Fuller Editor of Futures "The term 'post normal times' gives a frame of reference for understanding the surprise and uncertainty we experience in globally inter-connected phenomenon and events. It shakes long held and deep beliefs in a historical regularity of life patterns to say the complexity of humanity creates unrecognisable threats. We must be aware of our ignorances, humble about our knowledge, and ever watchful" About, People
Elisabet Roselló Román Elisabet Roselló Román Fellow, CPPFS "Postnormal Times seemed fresh to me because it was not only trying to describe the messy world with the absolute insecurity of new normals, but instead, it tries to give tools to surf and think across the chaotic, the complex and the ambiguous" About, People
Liam Mayo Liam Mayo Fellow, CPPFS "PNT makes sense of the current uncertainty we all perceive. But more than this, PNT is a change agent - willing us to a new way of being" About, People

Timeline

I think therefore I am
I progress therefore I am
I shop therefore I am
I share therefore I am
Defined
Monolithic
Relative
Contradictory
I am tradition and culture
I am science and technology
I am what I buy
I am online
Simple, Closed
Complicated, Closed
Complex, Open
Open, Interconnected, Chaotic
Conquest, Supremacy, Progress
Progress, Efficiency, Modernization
Relativism, Plurality, Individuality
Complexity, Chaos, Contradictions
Spanish Flu (1918-1920)
HIV/AIDS
Zika Virus, MERS, SARS
COVID-19
Monogamy
Serial Monogamy
Serial, Multiple Monogamy
Hetero, Homo, Trans, Serial, Plural
Feral, To be Tamed, and Exploited
Under Control, but Limits to Growth
Social Construction of Nature
Mass extinction, Climate Change
Pursuit of Reasoned Inquiry
Scientific Progress and Development
Socially Constructed and Relative
Complex, Uncertainties, Ignorances
Science makes work easier
Ideologically driven for "progress"
Biotechnology & Genome Sequencing
AI, Human-Machine Synthesis
Male, Female
Male, Female, (Closet Gays)
Male, Female, LGBTQ+
Undefined