Foresight and Public Action: Thoughts based on the Greater Lyon Experience

Jean-Loup Molin, who is in charge of strategic monitoring and research in the Forward Planning Directorate of the Urban Community of Lyon, outlines here how practical foresight activity is carried on for the “Greater Lyon” area. After a brief historical review that shows how the structures and practice of such activity have developed within Greater Lyon, he brings out, firstly, the key upstream role of the activities of strategic monitoring and societal analysis and, secondly, the participatory dimension in the development of future urban projects, in order to maintain the connection between forward planning and the potential beneficiaries of its recommendations. Starting out from these multiple contributions of foresight to the institutions of Greater Lyon and those who use the area, Jean-Loup Molin widens his analysis to the contributions it makes to public action in the broad sense. He is conscious of the tensions generated by the change that is occurring today and formulates five major proposals intended to confront the challenges likely to arise for forward planning and promote a highly open attitude towards it: defending the conditions for deep thinking; adopting a non-sequential approach and enhancing planning practices; making the connection with the operational dimension; re-connecting with the sphere of values; putting the management of public action back at the heart of forward planning activity – ideas all aimed at preserving deep analysis in a world characterized by accelerating change and increasing complexity.