By Neelam Rahim

What kind of work will our children do in 2015? New research shows that climate change and artificial intelligence-enabled technology development will be key drivers of how work is organised and valued in 2050. Whether it will be a dystopian or progressive future will depend on how far South Africa democratises technology and progresses towards climate neutrality in the present.

Radio Islam International discusses her study with Master of Philosophy in Future Studies and who graduated at Stellenbosch Business School, Siv Helen Hesjedal.

According to Helen, future studies foresight looks at multiple possibilities for the future as we think about the future very often. We do not believe it is possible that many things would happen but what we do look at what is changing and what are drives change, including all different terrains. In terms of the social world, economics and politics, we try to uncover the patterns of change or particularly how the change in one impacts the other, which is essential for people and organisations to be better prepared.

Many would answer that the process needs to start with Government getting the country ready. Others may say that will happen, but civil society needs to gear itself up.

Helen says the answer would be both; everybody needs to do everything they can. People who research existing programmes that have been put in place to address youth employment find that they impact many people in the short term. But the measures do not structurally address things and do not operate on the scale they should.

We also know that we need to change the energy system. Instead of just saying create the jobs, look at what needs to be done. We must look at who can do that and how we finance that. Huge possibilities in working with our eco-system, water system, and so on could create large amounts of jobs, said Helen.