Summary

About

Biography

Dr. Bezold has worked with parts of the United Nations family, particularly the World Health Organization (WHO) developing scenarios for the Executive Board and supporting the renewal of their “Health for All” vision in Europe and the Americas.

Governments he has worked with include the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Kuwait, Singapore, Finland, and South Africa. In the United States, he has worked with the Congress and Federal agencies in health, justice, defense, veterans’ affairs, transportation, accountability, personnel management and general services. At the state level, he has worked with governor’s offices, state legislatures, and courts inover twenty states, as well as many cities and counties at the local level.

IAF applied its Aspirational Futures approach to many of the largest global corporations, including AT&T, Bayer AG, Disney, GSK, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Morgan Stanley, Novo Nordisk, Siemens, Verizon, Vivendi, and Volkswagen. Because of the power of vision to accelerate change and transformation, and the centrality of vision in Aspirational Futures, this work led IAF to be named by the Gartner Group as one of the top dozen small organizations globally that could do effective change management for multinational corporations.

Bezold has published eleven books and hundreds of articles and reports on the future of
government, health and health care, courts and justice, and technology. His book, The
Future of Work and Health (co-authored with Rick Carlson and Jonathan Peck) received
American Health’s book award. He has served on the editorial boards of the leading
Journals in the futures field: Journal of Futures Studies, Futures, Technology
Forecasting and Social Change, Foresight, and World Futures Review.

He is a Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation, Co-Chair of the Public Sector Foresight Network, and received the World Futures Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bezold received a BSFS from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and his PhD in political science from the University of Florida. His dissertation focused on foresight in the U.S. Congress. He was the Assistant Director of the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the University of Florida College of Law and was a Visiting Scholar at the Brookings Institution. He has taught at the University of Florida, Antioch University and Law School, and American University.

Web Links

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Public Sector Foresight Network (PSFN)
• Research Gate
• Wikipedia

Videos

Leading Scientists Discuss Converging Technologies: Clement Bezold

(07:50)
By: STIP IdeaLab

This is one of a series of interviews with scientists working at the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. Participants discuss their definition of technological convergence, how this might affect various scientific fields and what obstacles must be addressed to reach convergence’s full potential.

In this video, Clement Bezold of the Institute for Alternative Futures discusses technological convergence. This work is part of the international study, “Societal Convergence for Human Progress,” sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The final report, Convergence of Knowledge, Technology and Society: Beyond Convergence of Nano-Bio-Info-Cognitive Technologies, can be downloaded here: http://www.wtec.org/NBIC2/Docs/FinalR…

What’s Missing in Government: The Future, Fairness and Shared Vision

(04:55)
By: Gov Futures

Selected Publications

Articles and Reports

Parliaments and Foresight: Scanning and Reflections on Parliamentary Futures Work. Clem Bezold, Journal of Futures Studies, In Press 2025.

Thinking about the future of health and cities in the Anthropocene, Cities & Health, 4(2): 213-220. Trevor Hancock and Clement Bezold. 

Aspirational Futures (Updated). Clem Bezold. Chapter 9 in The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020, Richard Slaughter and Andy Hines, eds. Association of Professional Futurists and Foresight International.

Human Progress and Human Services 2035: A Scenario Exploration. Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, VA, September 2018.  

The national report was accompanied by individual scenario reports on the future of human services in Baltimore (MD), Memphis (TN), Richmond (VA), San Antonio (TX), Jefferson County (CO), Montgomery County (MD), San Diego County (CA), Connecticut, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Virginia.

The History and Future of Anticipatory Democracy and Foresight. World Futures Review 11, no. 3 (September 2019): 273-282. 

Public Health 2030: A Scenario Exploration. Institute for Alternative Futures, 2014.

Health and Health Care in 2032: Report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Futures Symposium. Institute for Alternative Futures, 2012. 

Primary Care 2025: A Scenario Exploration. Institute for Alternative Futures, 2012.

Community Health Centers Leveraging the Social Determinants of Health. Institute for Alternative Futures, 2012.   

Vulnerability 2030: Scenarios on Vulnerability in the United States. Institute for Alternative Futures for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011.

Anticipatory Democracy and Aspirational Futures. Clement Bezold. Journal of Futures Studies 15, no. 2 (November 2010): 167-170.

Galveston Hurricane & Healthy Neighborhood Scenarios: Workbook on Community Health, Neighborhood Resiliency & Disasters. A. Nolen, C. Bezold, J. Prochaska, M. Masel, J. Sullivan, J. Ward. Center to Eliminate Health Disparities and Institute for Alternative Futures, 2010.

Lessons from using scenarios for strategic foresight. Clement Bezold, Technology Forecasting and Social Change 77 (2010): 1513-1518.

Jim Dator’s Alternative Futures and the Path to IAF’s Aspirational Futures, Clement Bezold, Journal of Futures Studies 14, no. 2 (November 2009): 123-134.

Aspirational Futures. Journal of Futures Studies 13, no. 4 (May 2009): 81-90.

Foresight for smart globalization: accelerating and enhancing pro-poor development opportunities. Special Issue, Foresight 11, no. 4 (2009). Guest Editors: Clement Bezold, Claudia Juech and Evan Michelson.

Chiropractic 2025: Divergent Futures. Institute for Alternative Futures, 2013.

Creating Public Awareness: State 2025 Diabetes Forecasts. Population Health Management 15, no. 4 (August 2012): 194-200. William Rowley and Clement Bezold.

Anticipatory Democracy Revisited. In Democracy and Futures. Helsinki: Parliament of Finland, Committee for the Future, 2006.

Disparities, Cancer Surveillance, and Next Steps. In Journal of Cancer Education 21, no. 1, Supplement (Spring 2006): S61-S68.

Barriers to Chronic Disease Care in the United States of America: The Case of Diabetes and its Consequences, Clement Bezold, Williams R. Rowley, and Derek Yach. In The Diabetes Epidemic: The Case for Changing Diabetes, a report sponsored by Novo Nordisk, November 2005.

Patient-Centered Care 2015: Scenarios, Vision, Goals and Next Steps for the Picker Institute. Institute for Alternative Futures, July 2004

Success for Social Science in the European Union 7th Framework Programme. Institute for Alternative Futures and University of Manchester’s Institute of Innovation Research for the UK Government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), 2004.

Rural Futures: Scoping Social Science Research Needs. Institute for Alternative Futures and University of Manchester’s Institute of Innovation Research for the UK Government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), 2004.

Scenario Exercise on Moving Toward a Sustainable Energy Economy. Institute for Alternative Futures and University of Manchester’s Institute of Innovation Research for the UK Government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), 2004.

Preliminary Summary Survey on Key Levers of Change to Prevent and Control Chronic Disease. Institute for Alternative Futures for WHO Non-Communicable Disease Strategy Development and Oxford Vision 2020 (2003).

A Long-Term Care Futures Tool Kit, pilot edition. Institute for Alternative Futures with the World Health Organization, Geneva, 2002.

Social science research priorities related to genomics: The “bottom line” for the ESRC genomics scenarios project. Clement Bezold and Ian Miles, Foresight 4, no. 4 (August 2002): 36-42.

ESRC Project on Genomics and Society: Priorities for Social Science Research. Institute for Alternative Futures and the University of Manchester Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition for the UK Government’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), 2002.

US General Services Agency – scenarios for the Federal workplace. Clement Bezold, Thomas A. Skirbunt, and Jennifer Jang in Scenarios in Public Policy by Gill Ringland. New York: John & Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2002, pp. 83-93.

Healthcare 2010 scenarios: guiding a vision for predictive medicine. Clement Bezold and Paul Meade, in Scenarios in Business by Gill Ringland. New York: John & Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2002, pp. 253-263.

Cyber Democracy 2001: A Global Scan. Institute for Alternative Futures for Vivendi Universal Prospective, 2001.

Cancer Surveillance Futures Project, Institute for Alternative Futures, American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, and the CDC, 2001.

The Future of Complementary and Alternative Approaches (CAAs) in U.S. Health Care. Institute for Alternative Futures,1998. 

Visionary Leadership and the Future of the VA Health System. Hospital and Health Services Administration 42, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 367-382. Clement Bezold, Erica Mayer, and Atul Dighe.

Health Promotion Futures, Guidance Memo, Regional/National/Local Options for Health Promotion Scenario Development. New Players for a New Era: Leading Health Promotion into 21st Century Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion, Jakarta, Indonesia, July 21-25, 1997 (HPR/HEP/4ICHP/FT/97.1). Clement Bezold and Trevor Hancock.

Health Promotion Futures, World Health-2020, Global Scenarios for Health Promotion. New Players for a New Era: Leading Health Promotion into 21st Century Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion, Jakarta, Indonesia, July 21-25,1997 (HPR/HEP/4ICHP/FT/97.2). Clement Bezold and Trevor Hancock.

Will Heart Disease be Eliminated in Your Lifetime? The Best of Health Futures. Futures Research Quarterly 11, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 29-40.

Vision for 21st Century Health Care. Futures Research Quarterly 11, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 57-63. 

“The Future of Health Futures.” Futures 27, no. 9/10 (1995): 921-925.

The Future of Therapeutics in the North. Futures 27, no. 9/10 (1995): 993-1003. 

Scenarios for 21st century health care in the United States of America: perspectives on time and change. World Health Statistics Quarterly 47 (1994): 126-139.

Health Care Innovation in the 21st Century – IAF Scenarios for 2010. A sequel to the Belmont Vision Project. Institute for Alternative Futures, 1995.

Possible futures, preferable futures. Clement Bezold and Trevor Hancock. The Healthcare Forum 37, no. 2 (March-April 1994): 23-29.

Creating Community Health Visions – A Guide for Local Leaders, a product of the Belmont Vision Project, Institute for Alternative Futures and the National Civic League, 1994.

21stCentury Health Systems: Principles & Visions, a project of Celebration Health and the International Health Futures Network for the Disney Development Company. Clement Bezold, Christopher T. Corr, and Richard Morrison, 1993.

An Overview of the Health Futures Field for a report, Consultation on Health Futures, Results and Methods in Health Futures in Support of Health for All for the World Health Organization. Clement Bezold and Trevor Hancock, 1993. 

Reinventing Courts for the 21st Century: Designing a Vision Process, a project by the Institute for Alternative Futures, the National Center for State Courts, and the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies. Wendy L. Schultz, Clement Bezold, and Beatrice P. Monahan, 1993.

Healthy People in a Healthy World: The Belmont Vision for Health Care in America. Institute for Alternative Futures, 1992.

21st Century Learning and Health Care in the Home: Creating a National Telecommunications Network. Clement Bezold, Mary Gardiner Jones, and Robert L. Olson, 1992.

Macrotrends Affecting Dispute Resolution and The Futures of Dispute Resolution for the National Institute for Dispute Resolution, December 1990.

The Future of Lifelong Education: Scenarios of Lifelong Education for Mid-life and Older Persons for New Roles in Society, American Association of Retired Persons. Clement Bezold and Robert L. Olson, 1990.

Florida’s Children at Risk: The Environment for Disabled and Developmentally Vulnerable Young Children in the Year 2000 for Florida State University. Clement Bezold, Heather Kurent, and Deborah Helsing, 1989.

Health Information Systems in the Triad 1990-2010, Clement Bezold and Jonathan C. Peck. Institute for Alternative Futures, 1989.

The Future of Pharmaceuticals. In Issues and Trends in Health. St. Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company, 1987.

Health Trends and Scenarios: Implications for the Health Care Professions. In Charting the Future of Health Care: Policy, Politics and Public Health. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1987. 

The Information Millennium: Alternative Futures for the Information Industry Association. Clement Bezold and Robert L. Olson, 1986.

The Future of Health Care: Implications for the Future of Health in Virginia for the Virginia Health Congress, 1986.

Health Care Over the Next 25 Years: The Changing Environment for the Pharmaceutical Industry. Alternative Futures Associates, 1986.

The Future and State Governments. The Journal of State Governments 59, no. 4 (November/December 1986): 141-143. Clement Bezold and Robert Bradley.

Nursing in the 21st Century: An Introduction. And Conclusion. Journal of Professional Nursing 2, no. 1 (January/February 1986): 2-9 and 69-71. Clement Bezold and Rick Carlson.

Alternative Futures for Alachua County and Gainesville: Six Scenarios for the Year 2000, October 1985.

Kentucky Tomorrow: Six Plausible Futures for Kentucky in 2010, for Kentucky Tomorrow for the Commission on Kentucky’s Future, August 1985.

Beyond Technocracy: Anticipatory Democracy in Government and the Marketplace. In Citizen Participation and Technocracy, Stuart Langton and Jack DeSario, eds., 1983. 

Alternative Futures for Vermont Forest Resources: A Strategic Planning Workbook. For the Vermont Agency of Environmental Conservation, Division of Planning; the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation; and the U.S. Forest Service, Green Mountain National Forest, 1982.

Florida Futures: Alternative Scenarios for Florida in the Year 2000, For the Florida House of Representatives’ Advisory Committee on the Future. Clement Bezold and Robert L. Olson, 1982.

The Canadian Hospital in 2025: A Workbook on Alternative Futures Planning. For Health Futures Project, November 1980. Clement Bezold and Peter Goldschmidt.

Energy Use in Health Facilities in 2025: A Workshop on Alternative Futures Planning. For the National Conference on Developing an Action Program for Energy and Economic Planning for Health Resources, a joint project of the Institute for Alternative Futures and the Policy Research Institute, November 1980.

Local Government Foresight. For the Twentieth Anniversary Meeting of the Hawaii State Association of Counties, Kauai, December 1979.

State Legislative Foresight, For the Hawaii State Legislature, June 1979.

The Future of Florida. The Futurist (October 1983): 12-19. 

The Future of Politics and Government. Special section of The Futurist (December 1981). Clement Bezold, ed.

Alternative Futures for Health Care: Emerging Issues and Society’s Future. National Journal (May 30, 1981): 49-52. 

Technology and Anticipatory Democracy. Futurics (1980).

Participation in Shaping the Future: Alternative Futures for Citizen Education. Futurics (Summer 1979).

Citizen Participation in Congressional Foresight. The Futurist (April 1978): 117-121.

Congress and the Future. The Futurist (June 1975): 132-142.

Congressional Committees and National Growth Policy, in Forging America’s Future, Appendix Volume 2, the report of the Advisory Committee on National Growth Processes to the National Commission on Supplies and Shortages, 1977. Clement Bezold and R. Lee Anderson. 

Strategic Policy Assessment: Activities and Prospects, Clement Bezold, Center for Governmental Responsibility, prepared for the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans. 1974. Published in Congressional Research Support and Information Services. Joint Committee on Congressional Operations, Hearings, 93rd Congress, 2nd Session, 1974. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974, pp. 438-487.

Books

21st Century Health Care in Latin America and the Caribbean: Prospects for Achieving Health for All. Alexandria, Virginia: Institute for Alternative Futures and Fundacion Mexicana para la Salud, 1998. Clement Bezold, Julio Frenk and Shaun McCarthy, eds.

Horizons 2013: Longer, Better Life Without Cancer. Atlanta: American Cancer Society, 1996. Clement Bezold, Helene G. Brown, and John R. Seffrin, eds.

2020 Visions: Health Care Information, Standards, and Technologies. Rockville, Maryland: The United States Pharmacopeial Convention, 1993. Clement Bezold, Jerome A. Halperin and Jacqueline L. Eng, eds.

Health Care 2010. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1994. Clement Bezold and Klaus Knabner, eds.

The Future of Work and Health. Dover, Massachusetts: Auburn House, 1986. Clement Bezold, Rick Carlson, and Jonathan Peck.

Pharmaceuticals in the 21st Century. Alexandria, Virginia: Institute for Alternative Futures and Project HOPE, 1985. Clement Bezold, Jerome Halperin, Howard Binkley, and Richard Ashbaugh, eds.

Judging the Future. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, Social Sciences Research Institute, 1981. Clement Bezold and James A. Dator, eds.

Anticipatory Democracy: People in Politics of the Future. New York: Random House, 1978. Clement Bezold, ed.

Public Sector Foresight Network (PSFN)

The Public Sector Foresight Network (PSFN) is intended to provide those involved in foresight for public sector organizations around the world the opportunity to share their aspirations, work, methods, experiences, and results.

OUR STORY
Recognizing the need for more interchange among those involved in government foresight, the Public Sector Foresight Network was co-organized by Nancy Donovan of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and Dr. Clem Bezold of the Institute for Alternative Futures.  It has grown from a 2011 breakfast meeting at the World Future Society annual conference to day-long meetings in subsequent years. Issues discussed include leading examples of foresight efforts, lessons and challenges in doing foresight, and how to best communicate and sustain foresight activities.

Attendees have included representatives of U.S. federal, state and local governments and participants from Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, New Zealand, China, Korea, the UK and other countries as well as the UN, NATO, academia and the consulting world.  Agendas and materials from past meetings can be found here.

Institute for Alternative Futures

The Institute for Alternative Futures, after four decades of promoting foresight and anticipatory democracy, has closed at the end of 2019. IAF was founded in 1977, by Alvin Toffler, Jim Dator, and Clem Bezold, originally as part of Antioch University, and became an independent non-profit in 1979. 

IAF has worked with over 700 organizations, including communities, governments, corporations, and non-profit groups on six continents; with large and small corporations; governors, legislatures, and court systems; and in health from the World Health Organization and largest U.S. health care systems to local community health centers. 

We created approaches to developing alternative futures – sets of scenarios that considered differing paths in future space. In the process we developed our Aspirational Futures approach that focuses on developing visions and preferred futures as well as scenario sets that explore expectable, challenging, and visionary alternatives. 

Perhaps our greatest contribution to more hopeful futures will be through the many young people who have come through the Institute as interns, researchers, and professional futurists. Through them and our teaching at colleges and universities we have engaged several generations in foresight. A number of people have become professional futurists and many others have told us that we changed their thinking when they entered their chosen fields of law, business, medicine, and public health. ​

Over the years we have made public, on IAF’s website, virtually all of our scenarios, reports, presentations, and “toolkits” that guide organizations and individuals through stepping into a set of scenarios, considering the implications and enhancing their vision. In partnership with the Internet Archive, we have  archived comprehensive copies of our IAF and AFA websites for educational, teaching, and learning purposes.

You can find our websites, projects, and publications in their new home: https://archive-it.org/home/altfutures. We invite you to visit this link and enter search terms in the “search” box.

Alternatively, you can go directly to the sites for popular projects in recent years by clicking the relevant “here”:

• Human Progress and Human Services 2035 here​

• Health and Health Care 2032 for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation here

• Public Health 2030 here

• The Health Equity and Prosperity Project here

• The U.S. Army Medical Department AMEDD Futures 2039 Project here

• Primary Care 2025 here​

• Public Sector Foresight Network here

We are deeply grateful for having been able to work as futurists with so many wonderful colleagues and clients over the decades. And we are grateful to those who continue to this day to pursue visionary futures. As organizations and futurists seek to use our Aspirational Futures approach, we hope this archive will serve them well. We remain available to advise on those efforts. For advice on Aspirational Futures work, you can contact us using the form below.