ROBERT CONAN RYAN

 ACADEMICS & CULTURE:

 

We live in such a highly specialized society that very few people have a broad, comprehensive view. Buckminster Fuller once talked about how the Comprehensive Designers should be studying the big picture of society, and then helping to devise meaningful interpretations about the direction we are heading. Now, we usually call thinkers of this vein as Futurists, who try to understand the possible, plausible, and desirable futures.

Futurists, however, have long worked in mysterious or non-systematic ways. Their job is as vague as that of an entrepreneur. I am developing theories of how future social institutions are actually created.  In fact, they must be created, curated, evangelized, networked, signified, and criticized. My first paper in this literature stream was published in 2015 (see below).

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I believe that we can understand how industries, social movements, and trends emerge, if we have the right lenses to see.

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Mitnick, B.M. and Ryan, R.C., 2015. On making meanings: Curators, social assembly, and mashups. Strategic Organization, 13(2), pp.141-152.

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