Movements toward holism in futures inquiry

This article takes LIP the question of the various movements toward holism ill futures inquiry. The Ken Wilber inspired integral futures, developed by Richard Slaughter and others, and put forth as the most comprehensive approach to-date, is critiqued and assessed. While Wilber's integral and the variant it has inspired in futures represent significant innovations, it also contains the tendency to un-necessarily close down, lock out or to sub-ordinate alternative conceptions of holism, what I term 'Wilber-ism'. Wilber's 'theory of everything' and integral futures are analysed, re-assessed and resituated in the context of the alternative approaches to holism that exist. What emerges is a rich view of potential genealogies and ontogenies as movements toward holism. One variant from the action research tradition, which I call 'integrative foresight', is put forward as all example of an alternative. The article concludes by proposing a process of dynamic dialogue between diverse conceptions of holism, which call at once honour the great diversity of approaches, while likewise continuing the journey of creating shared meaning and common understandings of the complex contexts in which futures inquiry works. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.