Current foresight activities in France, Spain, and Italy

Recent years have brought a significant revival of public foresight activit ies in many European countries, including France, Spain, and Italy. The Fre nch context is rather specific in the sense that public planning and foresi ght (prospective) are an old tradition starting in the early post war perio d, but was progressively abandoned until its international revival during t he 1990s. The recent experiences combine a mix of methods including the exp erimental reproduction of foreign experiences far long-term science and tec hnology foresight (allowing comparisons of the experts' opinions between co untries) and the development of a specific study of critical technologies i n the shorter term with the direct aim of orienting and improving the micro economic strategies in the country. Spain and Italy started their own tests of foresight procedures later. The diffusion of foresight approaches and methods is certainly influenced by cu ltural proximities between countries of Roman civilization, but the differe nt national settings led to relatively diverse experiences. International c omparisons reveal the wide variety of methods and implementations that can be contemplated at present in Europe-a living laboratory of public foresigh t experiences. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.