Design anthropological foresighting: Reframing automated futures

This article introduces design anthropological foresighting. It does so through the example of automated futures and demonstrates how this approach can be applied to investigate, understand and reframe dominant assumptions about how people will live with emerging technologies and energy systems in possible futures. In doing so we: outline the theoretical and methodological principles of design anthropological foresighting, and the implications this has for understanding automated futures; exemplify our approach through a discussion of research into digital energy futures; and demonstrate our reframing practice. We propose that design anthropological foresighting adds new layers of empirical and analytical knowledge to foresighting practice and invite researchers to join us in developing it further.