APF Asian Brown Bag Series #4 - MADANI: Values and Futures Oriented Policymaking in Postnormal Times

About the Session: In the complex, chaotic, and often contradictory present of our postnormal times, it is hard enough to think about the present, never mind the future. In Malaysia, under the premiership of Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the MADANI Malaysia framework has provided a national platform for building futures literate policy and inculcating futures awareness throughout society. MADANI Malaysia takes a reformed approach to conventional policymaking that incorporates futures and foresight wisdom along with insights from the characteristics of postnormal times. The framework takes the entire enterprise of policymaking back to the core values that unite the diverse peoples of Malaysia as a way to lead a whole-of-society engagement with the future. Ziauddin Sardar and Scott Jordan will explain how the framework was developed along with its role in the present government of Malaysia. While tailored to the values and culture of Malaysia, it provides a model not just for regional organisations like ASEAN, now under the chairmanship of Malaysia, but by which other groups, institutions, or nations might take a similar approach to future oriented action.

About the Speakers: Ziauddin Sardar, writer, broadcaster and cultural critic, is the Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies (CPPFS). He is a former Professor of Law and Society at Middlesex University, and Professor of Postcolonial Studies, the City University, London. He works across a number of disciplines ranging from Islamic studies and futures studies to science policy, literary criticism, information science to cultural relations, art criticism and critical theory. Sardar has worked as science journalist for Nature and New Scientist and as a television reporter for London Weekend Television. He was a columnist on the New Statesman for a number of years and has served as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and as a member of the Interim National Security Forum in the UK. He has published over 50 books. Sardar was the editor of Futures, the monthly journal of policy, planning and futures studies, from 1999—2013, and now serves as a Consulting Editor. Widely known for his radio and television appearances, he is currently co-editor of the quarterly journal Critical Muslim. He has also recently been named the founding Director of the International Institute of Futures Studies in Malaysia.

Scott Jordan is a writer, editor, political scientist, and philosopher. He is currently the Executive Assistant Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy & Futures Studies (CPPFS), an international network of thinkers developing theory and navigational approaches to Postnormal Times. Scott is also Deputy Editor of Critical Muslim, a quarterly literary journal out of the United Kingdom. He has been working to spread futures awareness and literacy as well as looking for new ways to develop policy in postnormal times in Malaysia, where he resides, as well as the greater Southeast Asian region. A specialist in East-West Studies, he writes extensively on postnormal times, politics, culture, philosophy, and education, often explored through the lens of film and popular culture. Scott is the author A Very British Muslim Activist: The life of Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, and has co-written, collaborated, and edited various works with other members of the CPPFS. He will begin working at the newly established International Institute of Futures Studies with the International Islamic University Malaysia this summer in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.