Multispecies Visioning

Data repository for the supplementary material of corresponding paper. "Anthropocentric bias in visioning and the multispecies alternative".

Abstract. Visioning, alongside other techniques for producing futural knowledge, is recognised as being central to establishing an alternative trajectory away from extreme systemic risk and towards a more sustainable, nature positive future. However, despite the abundance of visions shaping global policy responses to the polycrisis, the onto-epistemological foundations of these visions, and their theoretical and methodological underpinnings, haven’t been critically assessed in line with posthumanist thought. Working with van der Helm’s (2009) theorisation of visions within futures studies, we show that the current vision corpus exhibits a strong anthropocentrism, further compounding species inequalities, structural violence, and systemic risk to nonhumans. In an attempt to counter this single (human) species bias, we conducted a multispecies visioning exercise to imagine a world of reduced systemic risk from a nonhuman perspective. Our results further expose the shortfalls of current visions whilst demonstrating the viability of methods that de-centre humans. We highlight the urgent need to desist from anthropocentric visioning and advance non-speciesist approaches to achieve deep system transformation.

References as listed in the paper (Supplementary Material):

Video 1 Tovey, PM. (2025) ‘Nature&Nukes’ Videoleap, stock footage, iphone 15 pro max
Video 2 Tovey, PM (2025) ‘Multispecies Visioning Montage’, Videoleap, stock footage, iphone 15 pro max
MP3 Tovey, PM. and Oliver, T. (2025) ‘Multispecies Visions for Systemic Risk Reduction’. RunwayAI text-voice generation.
Imagine 1 Tovey, PM. (2025) Shamanic drum, adorned with buzzard feathers of Lydeard Wood, near Back Stream, Somerset, England, on stand with skim-netting, used in the animal invocation at Les Fontainies, France, with Roe Buck antler, found Bossington Hill, Exmoor, 2024