Linking visioning to decision-making through culture and collective knowledge

Prospective management considered as a process involves basically two different phases (visioning and decision-making) and different categories of actors. The prospective process influences people’s perceptions of problems, strategies and solutions. However, individuals and groups ’ cultures, knowledge and, ultimately, representations of the problems simultaneously affect the process itself. In other words, different positions with regard to the future evolutions of an issue may create different attitudes to the process. Thus, the most controversial issue is to conceal coherence and plurality. This paper is intended to present a methodology for shifting from a dynamic of specific and separated cultures and knowledges to collective ones through enhancing participation. The goal would be a coherently organised frame for visions and decision as a result of the process itself.