Our political leaders incessantly reiterate that we must find new ways to deal with the complexity of our contemporary world. Very seldom, however, are concrete examples presented in order to give people the opportunity to form an idea of how the future of Europe might look. Even more rarely are coherent and contrasted illustrations given of how Europe may evolve in the future depending on the actions and decisions that are taken today. Aware of this lacuna, the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission launched at the beginning of 1997 a project, Scenarios Europe 2010, with the objective of producing a set of coherent and thought-provoking images of the future of Europe. It is the hope that by studying these scenarios the reader will be encouraged to reflect both on the changes that are taking place in the world and on the options that lie ahead.
Many elements contribute to the process of societal change.
The transition from the agrarian and industrial societies to the information society have not only prompted new modes of living and a different, less hierarchical organisation of society, but also generated new values and aspirations of individuals. Scientific know-how has become so advanced as to allow humans to influence the cause of events on a large scale. And the possibilities of communicating and travelling have rendered the world a subjectively smaller place. In this world of constant mutation, individual citizens are looking for answers to complex questions and to new frames of reference against which the world can be understood. In contemporary society, it is recognised that public policies and the way they are conducted are becoming increasingly complex.