Place is never just a backdrop.
Every place encodes power: who it was designed for, who feels welcome, who is watched, who belongs, and who does not. Boardrooms, campuses, public squares, heritage sites, city streets: each one quietly signals whose voices matter and whose futures are centred.
When we facilitate futures work without attending to place, we risk reproducing those power dynamics unconsciously. Certain futures feel “natural” or “realistic” in some spaces, while others feel inappropriate, unrealistic, or out of place. Because place can include, and it can also exclude.
Working with place intentionally in my futures work allows me to notice and gently disrupt this. Walking side-by-side instead of sitting across tables. Choosing sites that carry contested histories. Letting environments speak alongside participants. Asking not only what futures are possible, but for whom, and where.
Attention to place doesn’t (necessarily) make futures work political. It makes the politics visible.