PLANNING FOR A DIFFERENT FUTURE

Hesham A. A. Mokhtar
Professor of National Planning and Urban Development
When planning long term, it is important to note that the context would be vastly
different than the one we are currently living in. After more than two centuries in a
world formulated by the industrial revolution, humanity is now living through the
migration towards the digital world. An era that not only has parallel realities, the actual
and virtual, but with those realities having new meanings; constants are turning into
variables, new vocabulary is introduced and the whole setup of this world is
reestablished. In such historical turning points, planning should never be limited to
“dealing with the future” but positively “formulating the future”. If we are not attentive
to how crucial this mission is today, the future of humanity will be hijacked and
directed towards the benefit of those who would drag us to a modern era of slavery.
This series of articles aims to give a wider scope and a more comprehensive
perspective of “Planning” as a tool for saving and directing the course of humanity
towards a brighter future.
Politics and Economics, two faces of the same coin