Dr JOSEPH VOROS
BSc(Hons) (Mon), PhD (Mon)
Ph +61 3 9214 5984
Fax +61 3
9819 2117
Room BA1021
jvoros@swin.edu.au
Dr Joseph Voros began his career as a physicist—he holds a PhD in theoretical physics, during which he worked on mathematical extensions to the General Theory of Relativity—followed by several years in Internet-related companies, including a stint at Netscape Communications Corporation, before becoming a professional futurist and strategic foresight analyst.
He has been associated with Swinburne University since early 2000, initially as a project consultant in the former Australian Foresight Institute. In mid 2000 he was appointed as a foresight analyst in Swinburne's own top-level strategic planning unit, and in that practitioner role he was involved in the building of a practical organisational strategic thinking capacity based on the use of foresight concepts and methodologies. During this time he continued to maintain strong links with the strategic foresight teaching program, attending every subject and providing a practitioner's perspective in many invited lectures.
In 2003 he joined the faculty of the strategic foresight teaching program where he now lectures on the theory and practice of foresight in organisations and society. He teaches into most of the units in the Master of Strategic Foresight, and also re-designed, convened and taught the Master of Business Administration (MBA) unit on Corporate Strategy for several years, bringing a unique "foresight" perspective to it as well. He has presented at conferences nationally and internationally, including keynotes, and three of his research articles have won excellence awards including, most recently, an Outstanding Paper Award in 2010.
Dr Voros' professional interests are very broadly multi-disciplinary. Among his main research interests are: the emerging field of "integral inquiry"; the interplay between futures thinking, strategic thinking, policy, design and creativity; and the broad sweep of cosmic evolutionary history as a framework for conceptualising the human knowledge quest and futures research. He has a strong belief in the need for both rigorous intellectual discipline as well as practical pragmatic utility in "real world" contexts, and this belief lies at the heart of his approach to Futures Studies and strategic foresight. He is a member of the Foresight Network/Shaping Tomorrow, the World Futures Studies Federation, a professional Member of the World Future Society, a Founding Member of the International Big History Association, and is on the editorial advisory boards of the UK journal Foresight, as well as the US Journal of Integral Theory and Practice.
Professional Memberships
• The Foresight Network - Member • Shaping Tomorrow - Member
• World Futures Studies Federation - Member
• World Future Society - Professional Member
• Asian Foresight Institute - Honorary Fellow
• Smart Services CRC - Services 2020 project
• Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre - Project 2.7
• International Big History Association – Founding Member
Research Interests
• The philosophical & methodological foundations of Futures Research
• Futures thinking as a fundamental human cognitive capacity
• Integrative / 'integral' approaches to knowledge & research
• Foresight as core element of strategy, policy & design
• Foresight in organisations & societies
• Theories & models of social change
• The long-term future of humankind
• Cosmic evolution & 'Big History'
Awards and Recognition
2012: Invited to present at the Global Future 2045 International Congress in Moscow, 17-20 Feb 2012. [University News Item] [Swinburne Research Bank entry]
2010: Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, Outstanding Paper Award for the paper: 'Morphological prospection: Profiling the shapes of things to come,' Foresight vol.11, no.6, 2009. [Citation]
2010: Featured educator, Educator Spotlight, World Future Society Learning Section Bulletin, FUTUREtakes [ISSN: 1554-7744], vol.8, no.2, Fall-Winter, 2009-2010. See: http://www.futuretakes.org/issues/fall_winter2009_2010/vol8no2/lsb_1.html#lsb2
2009: The special issue on 'Integral Futures' of the journal Futures (vol. 40, no. 2, March 2008) was voted among the three winners of the Association of Professional Futurists annual Most Important Futures Works program for 2008. See: http://profuturists.org/
2009: Parts of the article 'A generic foresight process framework' were used by the Center for Security Studies at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in a report on intelligence scanning in government. See: http://www.crn.ethz.ch/publications/crn_team/detail.cfm?id=96084
2008: Unijobs Lecturer of the Year Awards - National Finalist for 2008. Ranked in the Top 10 nominees for Swinburne University. See http://www.lectureroftheyear.com.au
2008: The article 'A generic foresight process framework' was the 6th most downloaded paper from the journal Foresight in 2008, and entered the top 20 most downloaded papers since download monitoring began in 2001.
2008: Swinburne University survey of student satisfaction regarding individual lecturers, semester 1 -- ranked in the Top 10 nominees for the Faculty of Business & Enterprise.
2007: Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, Highly Commended Award for the paper: 'Introducing a classification framework for prospective methods', Foresight vol.8, no.2, 2006. [Citation]
2005: Keynote presentation at the Australian Drug Foundation's conference Thinking Drinking received very favourably, as reported in the official conference report The Future of Drinking. [ADF web site]
2004: Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, Highly Commended Award for the paper: 'A generic foresight process framework', Foresight vol.5, no.3, 2003. [See vol.6, no.5, 2004]
Research Grants
Australian Research Council - Linkage Project
LP110200256 - Leveraging research and development (R&D) for the Australian built environment
Prof Keith D Hampson, Dr Karen J Manley, Prof Rachel L Parker, Dr Joseph Voros, Prof Goran Roos
Partner/Collaborating Organisations: Australian Institute of Commercialisation (QLD), Department of Public Works (QLD), Department of Treasury and Finance (WA), John Holland Pty Ltd, QLD Department of Transport and Main Roads, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Project Summary: This project will evaluate impacts, diffusion mechanisms and uptake of research and development (R&D) in the Australian building and construction industry. Building on a retrospective analysis and industry consultation, a future-focussed industry roadmap will be developed to establish R&D policies to inform and improve R&D investment effectiveness.
Publications (Selected)
Book Chapters
J Voros, 2012 (forthcoming), 'Big Futures: Macrohistorical perspectives on the future of humankind', in B Rodrigue, L Grinin & A Korotayev (eds), From Big Bang to Global Civilization: A Big History anthology, University of California Press, Berkeley.
J Voros, 2007, 'On the philosophical foundations of futures research', in P van der Duin (ed.), Knowing Tomorrow? How Science Deals with the Future, Eburon Academic Publishers, Delft, The Netherlands, chap.5, pp.69-90. ISBN: 978-90-5972-2293. [Publisher web site]
P Hayward & J Voros, 2006 'Playing the neo-humanist game', in S Inayatullah, M Bussey & I Milojevic (eds), Neohumanist Educational Futures: Liberating the Pedagogical Intellect, Tamkang University Press, Tamsui, Taiwan, chap.14, pp.283-96. ISBN: 986-7385-63-2. [Editors' web site]
J Voros, 2005, 3 chapters in RA Slaughter, S Inayatullah & J Ramos (eds), The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies, 5 vols, CD-ROM Professional Edition, Foresight International, Brisbane, Australia, 2005, ISBN: 0-9757354-0-3. [Publisher web site]
Refereed Journal Articles
P Hayward, J Voros & R Morrow, 2012, 'Foresight education in Australia: Time for a hybrid model?', Futures, vol.44, no.2, pp.181-8. [doi:10.1016/j.futures.2011.09.011].
L Brennan, J Voros & E Brady, 2011, ‘Paradigms at play and implications for validity in social marketing research’, Journal of Social Marketing, vol.1, no.2, pp.100-19. [doi:10.1108/20426761111141869].
J Voros, 2009, ‘Morphological prospection: Profiling the shapes of things to come’, Foresight, vol.11, no.6, pp.4-20. [doi:10.1108/14636680911004939]. Award winner: Outstanding Paper Award, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, 2010.
J Navarro, P Hayward & J Voros, 2008, ‘How to solve a wicked problem? Furniture Foresight case study’, Foresight, vol.10, no.2, pp.11-29. [doi:10.1108/14636680810869653]
J Voros, 2008, ‘Integral Futures: An approach to futures inquiry’, Futures, vol.40, no.2, pp.190-201.[doi:10.1016/j.futures.2007.11.010]
J Voros, 2007, ‘Towards an ‘integral’ view of entrepreneurship’, Journal of Futures Studies, vol.12, no.2, pp.5-22. [Journal web site]
J Voros, 2007, ‘Macro-perspectives beyond the world system’, Journal of Futures Studies, vol.11, no.3, pp.1-28. [Journal web site]
J Voros, 2006 ‘Nesting social-analytical perspectives: an approach to macro-social analysis’, Journal of Futures Studies, vol.11, no.1, pp.1-22. [Journal web site]
J Voros, 2006 ‘Introducing a classification framework for prospective methods’, Foresight, vol.8, no.2, pp.43-56. [doi:10.1108/14636680610656174]. Award winner: Highly Commended Award, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, 2007.
P Hayward & J Voros, 2006 ‘Creating the experience of social change’, Futures, vol.38, no.6, pp.708-15. [doi:10.1016/j.futures.2005.10.002]
J Voros, 2005 ‘A generalised “layered methodology” framework’, Foresight, vol.7, no.2, pp.28-40. [doi:10.1108/14636680510700094]
J Voros, 2005 ‘Speaking about the future: “pro-vocation” and “ante-diction” ’, Futures, vol.37, no.1, pp.87-96. [doi:10.1016/j.futures.2004.03.022]
J Voros, 2003 ‘A generic foresight process framework’, Foresight, vol.5, no.3, pp.10-21. [doi:10.1108/14636680310698379]. Award winner: Highly Commended Award, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, 2004.
M Conway & J Voros, 2003 ‘Foresight: Learning from the future’, Journal of Institutional Research, vol.12, no.1, pp.1-15. (Second author's name omitted in error on initial publication; see erratum acknowledgement in the Editorial, vol.12, no.2, 2003).
J Voros, 2001 ‘Reframing environmental scanning: an integral approach’, Foresight, vol.3, no.6, pp.533-52. [doi:10.1108/14636680110697200]
J Voros, 1995 ‘Physical consequences of the interpretation of the skew part of gmn in Einstein's non-symmetric unified field theory’, Australian Journal of Physics, vol.48, no.1, pp.45-53. [SAO/NASA ADS] [arXiv:gr-qc/9504047]
Refereed Conference Proceedings – Papers Published in Full
L Brennan, P Hayward & J Voros, 2008, 'Approaches to validity in entrepreneurship research', in LM Gillin (ed.), Proceedings of Regional Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2008: 5th International AGSE Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, held 5-8 February, pp. 299-309. ISBN 9780980332834. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/51819.
P Hayward & J Voros, 2008, 'From framework to experience and back', presented at The Identity of Experience: Challenges for experiential learning - The 11th International Conference on Experiential Learning, University of Technology, Sydney, held 8-12 December. Available at: http://www.education.uts.edu.au/icel/
P Hayward & J Voros, 2004 ‘Foresight and entrepreneurship’, in LM Gillin et al. (eds), Regional Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2004, Proceedings of the First Annual Regional Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University Press, Melbourne, pp.282-97. ISBN 0-85590-807-6.
J Voros, 1994 ‘The electrodynamics of Einstein's unified field theory’, in L Brewin, A Lun & E Chow (eds), Proceedings of the Fourth Monash General Relativity Workshop, held 12-14 July, Department of Mathematics, Monash University, Melbourne, pp.122-32. ISBN 0-7326-0554-7.
Refereed Conference Proceedings – Papers Published in Abstract
J Voros, 2007 ‘Foresight and Entrepreneurship: A literature review’, LM Gillin et al. (eds), Regional Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2007, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual AGSE International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology Press, Melbourne, pp.299-300. [http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/ir/onlineconferences/agse2007/]
P Hayward & J Voros, 2005 ‘The Perspective of the Entrepreneur’, in LM Gillin et al. (eds), Regional Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2005, Proceedings of the Second Annual AGSE International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology Press, Melbourne, p.328. ISBN 0-85590-809-2.
G Braidotti, P Hayward & J Voros, 2005 ‘Foresight, Entrepreneurship and the Philanthropic Desire for a Better World’, in LM Gillin et al. (eds), Regional Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research 2005, Proceedings of the Second Annual AGSE International Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology Press, Melbourne, p.627. ISBN 0-85590-809-2.
Research Reports & Monographs
TW Burke, RA Slaughter & J Voros, 2004 ‘Long-term housing futures for Australia: using “foresight” to explore alternative visions and choices’, Positioning Paper, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, ISBN 1-920941-21-5. [Available at www.ahuri.edu.au/publications/projects/p50225]
J Voros (ed.), 2003 Reframing Environmental Scanning: a Reader on the Art of Scanning the Environment, Australian Foresight Institute monograph series, no.4, Swinburne University Press, Melbourne. ISBN 0-88590-793-2. [Available at www.swinburne.edu.au/business/research_reports.html#2]
Presentations & Conference Papers
J Voros, 2012, 'Macro-prospection: Thinking about the future using macro- and Big History', paper presented at the Global Future 2045 International Congress, Radisson-Slavyaksaya Hotel, Moscow, Russia, 17-20 February. [See http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/216156]
P Hayward & J Voros, 2011, 'An "honourable" approach to futures inquiry', paper presented at "Theory Building in Foresight and Futures Studies", YIRCoF '11 - Yeditepe International Conference on Foresight and Futures, Larespark Hotel, Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey, 24-26 August. [See http://marc.yeditepe.edu.tr/yircof11_programme_110826.htm]
J Voros, 2011, ‘The Big Picture: From the Big Bang to the BlackBerry, and Beyond’, public lecture, Swinburne University of Technology, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Postgraduate Public Lecture Series, Marriott Hotel, Melbourne, 18-22 July.
J Voros, 2007 ‘In the mind of the beholder: The art of futures thinking’, keynote presentation at Intelligence 2007: ‘The New Umbrella of Intelligence’; the 16th annual conference of the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO), Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart, 16-18 October. [See http://www.aipio.asn.au/?q=node/19]
J Voros & P Hayward, 2007 ‘The Wilber model, developmental psychology and integral spirituality’, plenary presentation to The 2nd Victorian Transpersonal Psychology Symposium: Psychology and Spirituality, William Angliss College of TAFE, Melbourne, 8-9 September 2007. [See http://www.psychology.org.au/Events/EventView.aspx?EventID=2229]
P Hayward & J Voros, 2005 ‘Generating futures’, paper presented at the World Futures Studies Federation 19th World Conference, Budapest, 20-24 August 2005. Proceedings published as an online eBook: ISBN 963 503 3435. [Available at www.budapestfutures.org]
J Voros, 2005 ‘Thinking about the Future’, keynote presentation at the Australian Drug Foundation international conference, Rydges Hotel, Melbourne, 21-23 February 2005. Reported in: AM Roche et al., The Future of Drinking: A report on the conference Thinking Drinking: Achieving Cultural Change by 2020, Australian Drug Foundation, Melbourne. ISBN 0-85809-084-8. [Available at www.adf.org.au]
J Voros, 2004 ‘Engaging with the future’, keynote presentation to the VISTA (Association of Vocational Training and Education Professionals) Annual Conference, Geelong, 23 May.
J Voros, 2003 ‘The generic foresight process’ and ‘The viable system model’, plenary presentations to the Australian Foresight Institute Professional Development Forum, Swinburne University of Technology, 11 November.
J Voros, 2003 ‘Environmental scanning: new frameworks and reframing’, paper presented at the Foresight Methodologies Pre-Conference Workshop, Association for Tertiary Education & Management Annual Conference, Adelaide, 28 September.
M Conway & J Voros, 2002 ‘Implementing organisational foresight: a case study in learning from the future’, paper presented at the conference Probing the Future: Developing Organisational Foresight in the Knowledge Economy, 11-13 July, Graduate School of Business, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
R Slaughter, M Conway & J Voros, 2001 ‘Strategic foresight: Learning from the future and moving to action’, paper presented at the Technology Transfer and Innovation Conference 2001 (TTI2001), Brisbane, 26-28 September.
M Conway & J Voros, 2001 ‘Foresight: Learning from the future’, paper presented at the Australasian Association of Institutional Research Annual Forum, Rockhamption, 3-5 September.
J Voros, 2001 ‘Foresighting: an introduction to the art and practice of foresight’, presentation to the Executive Council of the Association for Tertiary Education and Management (ATEM), Sydney, 5 May.
Journal Editorial Advisory Boards
Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, ISSN 1554-5814, published by Integral Institute. http://aqaljournal.integralinstitute.org/public/Advisory_board.aspx
Foresight - the journal of futures studies, strategic thinking and policy, ISSN 1463-6689, published by Emerald Publishing. www.emeraldinsight.com/fs.htm
On the Horizon – the strategic planning resource for education professionals, Jan–Dec 2003. ISSN 1074-8121, published by Emerald Publishing. www.emeraldinsight.com/oth.htm
Refereed Journal Guest Editorships
RA Slaughter, P Hayward & J Voros, Futures - Special Issue: Integral Futures; vol.40, no.2, March 2008. [Journal web site]
P Hayward, J Voros & S Inayatullah, Journal of Futures Studies – Special Issue: Global Soul conference 2005; vol.10, no.4, May 2006. [Journal web site]
Degree Award Thesis
J Voros, 1996 'On the electrodynamics of Einstein's non-symmetric unified field theory', PhD thesis, Dept of Physics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Industry Magazines
J Voros, 2006 'Gain Foresight', Leadership Excellence (Australian edition), vol.23, no.9, p.19.
J Voros, 1999 'The evolution of consciousness and business', The Australian Business Network Report, vol.7, no.9-10, pp.3-8.
W Batchelor & J Voros 1994, 'Electronic resource guide for physicists', Australian and New Zealand Physicist, vol.31, no.4, pp.62-65 (April). Reprinted in: Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies Bulletin, vol.4, no.2, pp.22-24 (June 1994).
Mass Media
Interview/quoted, The Australian Financial Review - BOSS Magazine, Big Ideas Special issue, June 2007, 'The Futurists', p.55.
Podcast/online interview, Let's Talk Net - Business Series, Episode 7, Segment 5, .au Domain Name Administrator (auDA), Melbourne. Online Nov 2006. [http://www.letstalknet.com.au/business.php]
Interview/quoted, The Australian Financial Review Magazine 10+10=2020: Future Issue: 10th Anniversary Issue, May 2005, pp.19, 75 & 80.