I believe that Ana Maria Sandi ...

I believe that Ana Maria Sandi , also a mathematician, is still working in the area of development and future thinking, as well as the very open-minded social scientist Viorica Ramba Varga, who has been present since the very beginning. In 1972 Poland was strongly represented by Poland 2000, which was the group within the Polish Academy of Warsaw.

It was specially interested in cultural issues, whether in terms of cultural artefacts, as the theatre, or in anthropologically understood culture in Europe.

People from the excellent school of sociology of Poland were also part of the group, including Jan Strelecki , a hero of the resistance against the German invasion and an excellent and famous sociologist, who died in mysterious circumstances in 1981, Andrzej Sicinski, briefly Minister of Culture during the first government after the change, Jan Danecki and Danuta Markowska . This group was extremely active in the 80s during the difficult period of change.

In my view, two aspects of the 1972 Conference were of particular importance: the decision to found a World Federation of Futures Studies (the WFSF came into being in 1973) and the real interest in futures studies expressed by Eastern European countries despite the limitations of the historical period.

I would like to stress the important role played by futures studies and the WFSF in a very difficult time for these countries, offering what Milos Zeman of Czechoslovakia later referred to as a “window on the outside world”. This is no small role, if viewed in a historical perspective.

Despite its many problems, Czechoslovakia managed to keep the interest in futures studies alive, first with Radovan Richta , the author of the famous book “Civilization on the Crossroads” (now impossible to find) and later thanks to the commitment of many others, including Milos Zeman , at present a high-ranking political leader. The third WFSF World Conference was held in Rome (1973).

Again there were many scholars from Eastern Europe with Hungary showing the extent to which interest in futures studies had developed under the leadership of Prof. Géza Kovács and with the presence within the Futures Research Committee at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences of people of the calibre of Maria Kalas Kőszegi and Erzsébet Gidai .

The group in Hungary was mainly oriented towards economic development and has therefore been able to play an important role in recent decades and indeed through the entire historical period.