_ Real Research
_ Radical Human-Centricity
_ Human Futures
_ Research @ HFI
We currently have three major research programs underway
HF_Index
The HFI Index is a modular data and insights toolkit for researchers, Government, NGOs, designers, strategists, financial analysts, and business leaders. We developed the unique combination of qualitative and quantitative datasets and analysis to contextualize emerging signals in historical patterns and reveal the impact potential of future change on a wide range of organizations, innovations, and initiatives.
Combining a comprehensive breakdown of the current state, an array of clearly explained future scenarios, and an assessment tool to understand their key differences, the HFI Index provides a platform for understanding the dynamics of future change forces. Its assessment tool uses a qualitative and quantitative analytical procedure to identify the key differences and similarities across a number of divergent foresight scenarios. It then provides a comparative analysis of future states in relation to the current state, clarifying how these key differences will translate to greater or lesser threat and impact.
The HFI Index is an excellent tool to understand the impact future states will have on innovations like products, services, and experiences, and on product portfolios, business models, and strategies. It is the perfect tool to begin the strategic work of assessing foresight scenarios and forecasting models, or baselining social and environmental impact assessments (SEIAs).
HFx
The Human Futures approach is a seamless combination of applied insight and foresight practices. It’s purpose is to help researchers working in an applied or commercial setting focus more on the centrality of human action and how human agents are behind much of the change traced in foresight.
The development of this approach and toolkit is the principal work of the research team at HFI. It is part of our commitment to a Radical Human-Centricity, and our desire to eliminate the mistakes and failed promises made by design research, design thinking, and market research.
HFI | Covid-19
Currently we are part of a multi-national academic and think tank consortium conducting comparative and exploratory research on non-medical responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in several countries.
_ We are studying the privacy concerns around tracking and tracing apps and other digital Covid-19 resource apps. Initial results will be published soon.
_ We are conducting an 18-month, ethnographic study of travel, quarantine, and tracking and tracing programs in several countries around the world. Initial results will be published soon.
We will be continuing this research program for several years.
Notice: We have submitted a white paper to the Canadian and Korean governments, and the governments of the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. It will be available for a wider audience in late 2021.
Hartley, Paul and Hye Young Kim. 2021. Covid at the Border: Cultural Design Consideration for Building a Successful Travel and Quarantine Protocol. Toronto: Future Content.
_ Recent Publications by HFI Researchers
Angeli, F., Metz, A. & Raab, J. Forthcoming book: Organizing for Sustainable Development. Routledge.
Hartley, Paul and Hye Young Kim. 2021. Covid at the Border: Cultural Design Consideration for Building a Successful Travel and Quarantine Protocol. Toronto: Future Content.
Dilmaghani, M., & Tabvuma, V. 2021. Fragile Families in Quebec and the Rest of Canada: A Comparison of Parental Work-Life Balance Satisfaction. Population Research and Policy Review, 1-34.
Schroeder, Karl. 2021. "The Price of Attention." Make Shift: Dispatches from the Post-Pandemic Future, MIT Press, March
Saunderson, S. and Nejat, G., 2021. Robots Asking for Favors: The Effects of Directness and Familiarity on Persuasive HRI. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 6(2), pp.1793-1800..
Dilmaghani, M., & Tabvuma, V. 2020. Who Pays for My Lies? Comparing Dishonesty at the Expense of the Experimenter and Fellow Subjects. Economics Letters. 194, 109385.
Saunderson, S. and Nejat, G., 2020. Investigating Strategies for Robot Persuasion in Social Human-Robot Interaction. IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, May 2020, pp.1-13.
Metz, Ashley and Paul Hartley. 2020. “Development as a Valuation Practice: Implications for practitioners and fields. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 155:C.
Schroeder, Karl. 2020. "The Suicide of Our Troubles." Future Tense, Slate.com, November 2020. To be reprinted in The Year's Best SF, 2nd Edition, ed. by Jonathon Strahan, November 2021.
Schroeder, Karl. 2020. "The Walk" Sci Futures' Empathy Project.
Hehenberger, L., Mair, J., & Metz, A. 2019. The Assembly of a Field Ideology: An idea-centric perspective on systemic power in impact investing. The Academy of Management Journal, 62(6): 1672-1704.
Hartley, Paul. 2019. “Learning to “Be there”: Design Research Education Can Unlock a New Foundation for Design.” Applied Arts Magazine, Fall, 2019.
Saunderson, S. and Nejat, G., 2019. How robots influence humans: A survey of nonverbal communication in social human–robot interaction. International Journal of Social Robotics, 11(4), pp.575-608.
Saunderson, S. and Nejat, G., 2019. It would make me happy if you used my guess: Comparing robot persuasive strategies in social human–robot interaction. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 4(2), pp.1707-1714.
Dilmaghani, M., & Tabvuma, V. 2019. The gender gap in work–life balance satisfaction across occupations. Gender in Management: An International Journal. 34, 398-428.
McCarthy, D., Wei, P., Homberg, F., and Tabvuma, V. 2019. Public Service Motivation in the Chinese Public and Private Sectors. Evidence Based Human Resource Management (EBHRM). Forthcoming.
Dilmaghani, M., and Tabvuma, V. 2019. No Rosy Glasses in Bluesy Ghettos? Job Satisfaction of Pink and Blue-Collar Workers in Canada of 1989-1991. Labor History. 60(4), 392-407.
Lafleche, J.F., Saunderson, S. and Nejat, G., 2018. Robot cooperative behavior learning using single-shot learning from demonstration and parallel hidden Markov models. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 4(2), pp.193-200.
Zhou, Y., Zou, M., Williams, M., & Tabvuma, V. 2017. Is the grass greener on the other side? A longitudinal study of the impact of employer change and occupational change on job satisfaction. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 99, 66-78.
Schiff, M., Saunderson, S., Mountian, I. and Hartley, P., 2017. Chronic disease and self-injection: ethnographic investigations into the patient experience during treatment. Rheumatology and therapy, 4(2), pp.445-463.
Babin, R. and Saunderson, S., 2016. Governance of outsourcing: Building a better relationship. Journal of Information Systems Applied Research, 9(1), p.16.
Schroeder, Karl, et al. 2014. Crisis in Urlia, Canadian Army Land Warfare Centre, Defense Research and Development Canada, May. http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/mdn-dnd/D2-324-2013-eng.pdf
Hassan Masum, Karl Schroeder, Myra Khan, and Abdallah S. Daar. 2013. “Open Source Biotechnology Platforms for Global Health and Development: Two Case Studies.” In Open Development: Networked Innovations in International Development, ed. Matthew L. Smith and Katherine M.A. Reilly, MIT Press.