Brussels: Futures of Identity in a Nationalist Landscape

Abstract

Directly applying the Mānoa School of Futures Studies’ four generic futures methodology, this dissertation investigates the driving forces, contemporary trends and emerging issues of Brussels anno 2015 within a nationalistic Flemish, Belgian and European Union landscape. Working with these images of the contemporary Global City of Brussels, futures scenarios for four futures of identity in 2060 are explored: Continued Growth via Social Fortress Flanders in Confederate Belgium; Collapse and New Beginnings in Arabic Fortress Brussels; Disciplined European Survival Regulated by Brussels, E.C. (Capital of the United States of Europe); and Transformation in Organic & Synthetic Identities in Sector 1 of Galactic Europe. This study concludes with a preferred future for Brussels utilizing the futures’ backcasting technique.