Frederik Lodewijk Polak (1907 Amsterdam - 17 September 1985, Wassenaar) was one of the Dutch founding fathers of futures studies, perhaps best known in the field for theorising the central role of images of the future in his classic work The Image of the Future. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Amsterdam (pronounced) is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west Events 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Note parts of this article have been translated from the Dutchversion of this page The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Futures Studies, Foresight, or Futurology is the science art and practice of postulating possible probable and preferable futures and the worldviews Images of the future are one of the main resources used in the field of Futures Studies, as a subject of analysis as well as a site for the active development and pursuit of
Polak was the son of Alexander Polak, violin builder and concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Janet Kiek, who founded the first Home Economics Budget Bureau. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (In Dutch: Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest) is the best-known and most respected Symphony orchestra of the He studied law and economics in Amsterdam and, before the Second World War, was a member of the Board of Directors of a large chain of stores in the Netherlands. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In 1936 he married the poet Louise Moor. As a jew, Polak spent the war years in hiding and preparing a PhD thesis in philosophy. After the war he became a staff member and managing director of the Netherlands' Central Planning Bureau, personal advisor to the Minister of Education (Art and Science), advisor of the Dutch government for Full Employment, Professor of Sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Managing Director of an industrial organization at Twente (Netherlands). Erasmus University Rotterdam is a university in the Netherlands, located in Rotterdam. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands
Polak graduated cum laude in philosophy in 1946, and since his thesis and inaugural address in 1947 on the evolution of science and society of tomorrow, devoted himself continuously to the future of man and society.
Author of many publications on futurology, Polak was recipient of Fellowships from UNESCO, the Ford Foundation, and the Council of Europe which awarded him a prize for the two-volume book The Image of the Future. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on November 16 The Ford Foundation is a Private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by The Council of Europe (Conseil de l'Europe is the oldest International organisation working towards European integration, being founded in 1949 He was the founder and first president of Teleac (Dutch television academy), co-founder and vice-president of the Erasmus Prize Foundation, scientific advisor for long term planning to numerous concerns in the Netherlands, and President of Mankind 2000 International. He was engaged in setting up an institute for long term future research and development in the Netherlands and was also Secretary-General of the International Society for Technology Assessment.
A 2005 article by Ruud van der Helm states: "Among the founders of the futures studies field, the Dutch sociologist Fred Polak is one of the least known. Although he is still mentioned by several renowned futurists, very little has been written about the evolution of Polak’s ideas and as far as we have been able to trace back, no retrospective work has been published. Today, Polak is mostly known for his opus magnum ‘The Image of the Future’, an impressive cultural-historic study of the relation between images of the future and the dynamics of culture. He was an original thinker, but his work was remarkably uneven: his encyclopaedic and erudite style has led to both very deep and very shallow analyses. Especially his earlier contributions in the 1950s and 1960s still prove a very valuable resource, although many of his ideas should be handled with care. However, his later works in the 1970s are out of tune with the rise of a more critical approach to the study of the future. "
References
Van der Helm, R. , The Future According to Frederik Lodewijk Polak: Finding the Roots of Contemporary Futures Studies, Futures 37(2005) 505-519 (Elsevier Publishers)
External links
- The Image of the Future, [1]
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