Report Acting together: Intergenerational values and wisdom Rowena Morrow Prospective Services Pty Ltd., PO Box 702, Brentford Square VIC 3131, Australia 1. Introduction This is a report on the Intergenerational Values and Wisdom stream at the 2005 WFSF World Conference held in Budapest, Hungary. The stream was titled ‘Counting on each other: values and wisdom in the intergenerational scope’ and included papers on values, methods, and sustainable development. The views reported in this paper are those of the author, taken from notes made at the time of the conference, and do not necessarily represent the whole group. The values arena is contested and where some agreement could be reached, this has been referred to. The session structure was designed to allow for a free flow of ideas and discussion, sometimes this occurred and there were times when a more formal structure seemed to emerge. Participants appeared to be less comfortable with the workshop type of arrangement that one would have expected however given the discussion was held in English, and this was the first language of only two of the nine presenters, the outcome and depth of understanding that was reached is a testament to people’s willingness to engage and try to make themselves understood to others who were culturally and linguistically diverse. Discussing values and ethics is an area those involved in futures studies should be adept in. Given the central role values play in generating futures images, the values being conveyed by presenters should have been less difficult to grapple with than they appeared to be. One of the main issues may have been the lack of depth understanding of epistemological standpoints. For instance, the presenters and participants from the old Eastern Bloc countries called on an almost entirely different traditions to that which the author has been exposed. The experience was exhilarating but also very tiring as assumptions needed to be examined time and time again to ensure erroneous conclusions were not reached—the cultural constructedness of language was very plain! The conclusions reached by the participants, and the felt experience of that process, was one of practicing what we were preaching. Coming together as a group in such a short time, discussing what we had heard and attempting to agree, or at least Futures 42 (2010) 83–88 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Available online 25 August 2009 ABSTRACT Future values and wisdom in a generational sense is a challenging topic to wrestle with at an international conference, especially one which focuses on action in the present. Session Two at the 2005 WFSF World Conference in Budapest was titled ‘Counting on Each Other’, represented through the papers presented here and the group’s discussion related by the author. The papers were grouped into four areas—Futures Studies and Methods; Values; Sustainable Development; and Rights and Ethics. After reading the issues which were raised, and the conclusions that were reached, the reader should appreciate the complexity of the topic. In particular, the difficulties faced by a group of people who wished to explore this topic, its related images of the future and the actions generated for the present is a microcosm of the difficulties faced in the wider world when trying to deal with these issues for the future. ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. E-mail addresses: prospective@pspl.com.au, rowena@pspl.com.au. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Futures journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/futures 0016-3287/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2009.08.010