Our History and Goals

The Institute for Social Futures was founded in 2015 by John Urry and Linda Woodhead. ‘Social futures’ urges us to see the bigger picture and underscores the importance of the arts and social sciences for making sense of the challenges facing us. Our aim is to facilitate transformational research projects that would not ordinarily be possible for researchers working in their regular disciplinary / faculty context. In order to do this, we provide the time and energy for people to come together and develop research that links across different specialisms and faculties, as well as with partners around the world and outside academia.