Includes bibliographical references.

Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Grappling with Practice Futures -- Exploring Practice in Context / Joy Higgs -- Thinking the Unthinkable / Steven Cork and Debbie Horsfall -- Plausible Practice Futures / Steven Cork and Kristin Alford -- The Impact of Practice on Wicked Problems and Unpredictable Futures / Peter Goodyear and Lina Markauskaite -- The Changing Face of Work / Paul Whybrow and Asheley Jones -- Practice and the Common Good -- Re-claiming Social Purpose and Adding Values to the World around Us / Debbie Horsfall and Joy Higgs -- Our Place in Society and the Environment / Steven Cork -- Practice Futures for Indigenous Agency / Sandy O’Sullivan -- Changing Work Realities / Rosemary Leonard and Margot Cairnes -- Towards Future Practice in Socio-political Contexts / Megan Conway and Joy Higgs -- Pursuing Practice Futures -- The Place of Agency and Related Capacities in Future Practices / Franziska Trede and Joy Higgs -- Employability and Career Development Learning through Social Media / Ruth Bridgstock -- Re-imagining Practice Structures and Pathways / Joy Higgs and Daniel Radovich -- Freelancing, Entrepreneurship and Inherent Career Risk / Noel Maloney -- Young People’s Hopes and Fears for the Future / Steven Cork and Jennifer Malbon -- Facing Recruitment Challenges / James Cloutman and Graham Jenkins -- PhDs and Future Practice / Bernadine Van Gramberg -- Educational Innovations / Asheley Jones -- Otherness in Practice (in the Health Professions) / Janice Orrell and Julie Ash -- Workplace Innovations and Practice Futures / Thomas Carey , Farhad Dastur and Iryna Karaush -- Reflections -- Reflections about Work / Joy Higgs -- Back Matter -- Notes on Contributors.

“What might the futures of practice be like?” is far from a straightforward question. Emphasising \'the\' before the word future, implies one future. But futures thinkers have identified a range of futures that people think about. In this book we reflect on possible, probable, and preferable futures in relation to practice and work. Readers are invited to consider how their own engagement in shaping possible futures will support ways of working that they deem preferable, even those they can hardly imagine. Challenging Future Practice Possibilities also examines influences that are maintaining the status quo and others that are pushing interest-driven change. Authors consider the major challenges that practice and practitioners face today such as wicked problems, fears for the future and complex demands and opportunities posed by the digital revolution. A number of examples of future-oriented work directions such as protean careers and artificial intelligence enhancing or even replacing human workforces, are considered along with concerns like the vulnerability of many work situations and workers. In some cases workers and employers alike are unprepared for these challenges, while others see adapting to these situations as yet another pathway of practice futures evolution.