“Nothing is set in stone. A bird can be refolded into a boat, a fish, a kimono, or any other extravagant vision. At other times it aches to return to its original folds. The paper begins to fray. It tires, rebels.”
—Tor Udall, A Thousand Paper Birds
In her book, Tor Udall uses this quote to convey the idea that identities and situations are not fixed or permanent, much like a piece of origami paper that can be folded and refolded into different shapes.
Origami and Identity Formation
Authors Lorraine Hedtke and Christina Houen also used the origami metaphor to illustrate selfhood construction and identity change in the act of folding, re-folding, and unfolding narratives and stories. While the authors anchored the origami metaphor in the context of loss and grief, I find a connection in the Japanese art of origami that can be extended to explore identity in futures and its ethical implications on the future visions futurists shape.
The Power of Futurists
In the context of futures, practitioners hold a position of power because of their situatedness and role in shaping future systems. Practitioners frame their work and choose the methods, tools, and processes based on their shaped identities and how they view the world. Indeed, the values, stories, and beliefs futurists adopt and the experiences they have lived and continue to live reflect not only on their identities but also on their work.
According to Houen, just as origami involves folding paper to create various shapes, the construction of selfhood involves an ongoing process of shaping and reshaping one's identity. This process is active (self-directed) and reactive (influenced by others and external factors), suggesting that identity is formed through interactions with oneself and the surrounding world.
I described this relationship of influence in my previous blog post, The Wayfinder's Approach to Futures. Various waves that have shaped the futures field carry distinctive functions and traditions that shape practitioners' work and identity. This constant reshaping of our identities calls for a conscious practice of awareness and critical reflection. The inherent power futurists have in maintaining or transforming systems calls for a continual sense-making and orientating process that informs our perspectives and interpretations, influencing how we approach our work.
Positionality in Futures
Orienting in futures means knowing your location in relation to your environment and its players. No wonder orientation is a powerful practice because it helps us attune and adjust with awareness to the context. One practical method to cultivate a sense of orientation is positionality. It refers to an individual's situatedness within social, cultural, political, and historical contexts, which shapes their perspectives, heuristics, and approaches to knowledge production. Positionality highlights the idea that who we are—our identities, backgrounds, experiences, and privileges—inevitably influence how we perceive and interpret the world around us.
Reflecting with Origami
Origami starts with a square piece of paper but changes meaning when overlapped and folded in multiple ways. One fold is a bird, another is a crane, and the third is a rabbit. Each shape has its own stories, meanings, and narratives. Researchers Wanda Knight and Yang Deng described positionality as “a state of being and a process of becoming, a journey of negotiations between social identities and shifting spaces of here and there.”
When engaging in futures work, we must ask ourselves and reflect on our positionality.
Are we insiders or outsiders in this scope of work?
In what ways are we perpetuating harmful systems or practices?
Are there marginalized points of view that we might overlook because of our cultural, social, or political orientation?
These are some reflective questions that can help us consider our position when engaging with future work. It is worth mentioning that this is not a one-off thing; instead, it is a process of being and becoming since we are in a constant reinforcing loop where our values influence our work, and our work influences us in return. This complexity of identity can be understood when looking into intersectionality.
Points of Intersection
To better understand our positionality, adopting an intersectional lens in our process of reflection can reveal a comprehensive view of the dynamics of identity and its proximity to power. Returning to the origami metaphor, points of intersection create different shapes and meanings from the same piece of paper. Joanna Simpson's Guide to Applying Intersectionality describes, “an intersectional approach recognizes that these multiple intersections exist in endless combinations, and that they can sometimes lead to privilege and sometimes to discrimination.”
Intersectionality, a concept popularized by American civil rights advocate and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, highlights the interconnected nature of social identities such as race, gender, class, and ability. The central insight of intersectionality is that systems of power and oppression are complex and multifaceted and cannot be understood by focusing on single identity categories in isolation.
Adrienne Matthews, visual artist, designer, and writer, explains how she approaches her work using intersectionality. During her engagement with the Gates Foundation, she applied an intersectional lens to thinking about the project's framing, conducting research, and asking questions to develop a holistic view of the system within which she operated.
The futurist's identity can be seen in the same way when viewed through an intersectional lens. How our identities overlap and intersect brings us closer or further to power. Therefore, the need to analyze our intersecting identities allows us to reflect on the different experiences and identities that we formed and continue to form in relation to the field, our colleagues, the work itself, the client, and the context in which we operate.
Overall, intersectionality (the interconnected nature of our social identities) and positionality (our location in relation to our environment and its players) remind practitioners that the future is not a monolithic entity but a complex tapestry woven from individuals' and communities' diverse experiences, perspectives, and positionalities. By embracing these concepts, practitioners can develop more nuanced, inclusive, and ethically grounded approaches to futures studies.
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