Gáspár, Tamás; economist, future researcher

Tamás Gáspár (1968) is an associate professor, PhD and a member of public corps of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. At the Corvinus Unversity of Budapest (former Budapest University of Eco-nomic Sciences) he participates in the education and research of futures studies as well as gives courses on visions and fields in the world economy and on strategy of external economic relations. The latter he also teaches at the University of Technology. Formerly he gave courses at the Budapest Business School on world economics, international economic policy and future oriented economics.

Research areas:

visions and cultural economic fields in different world economic eras; the roots of the knowledge society, the regional models of the information age and its constraints; the futures stud-ies bases of mezzo- and macro strategies; futures studies in economics; levels as well as academic and non-scientific planes in studying the future

Intellectual profile:

Tamás Gáspár has specialized in foreign economic strategy and has been trained by Ferenc Kozma, who later became his PhD tutor and mentor. Moreover, Pál Gervai’s discussion forums on philosophy and political economy, the natural cure knowledge and results of Valeria Kiss as well as professional relations with numerous other colleagues have shaped his world view. He regularly participates in the discussions called ‘Gong’ organized by Ferenc Vidor. His interest early turned to the macro structures of individual phenomena: he wrote his PhD thesis on the political eco-nomic interpretation of integration theory. In the philosophical researches he is interested in the cultural-political frames of economic phenomena, on spiritual level so does in the inner harmony and operation of systems, and he deals with economic system theory with his mentor.
His personal experience as well as the latest results of natural and social sciences that discover again the ancient wisdom have strengthened his analogical-symbolic view. Parallel, in the research and education activities he has turned to the inner spirituality, the external relations and the practi-cal experience of mezzo-level strategies. He aims at revealing the cultural-spiritual drives of so-cial-economic systems and vice versa: he aims at showing the economic strategy manifestation of cultures and visions, and supporting their regional development. Do not take all these as restricted economic theory: in the Euro-Atlantic world the examples and principles of the prudence of the Gospel, as one interpretation of the sustainable futures strategy, create a field and hence are in-volved in the external strategic thinking.
He is a typical university person: the original meaning and atmosphere of universitas offers the most productive ground for his results. He is a member of international and domestic organiza-tions, among which the World Futures Studies Federation on international level, as well as the As-sociation of People for Somogy Region are worth highlighting. In both cases as a board member he contributes to the organizations. The world conference 2005 of the World Futures Studies Fed-eration he helped as the chair of the Organizing Committee and put much effort in creating a self-organizing and dialog oriented conference. Also, together with young people from all over the world he has been endeavouring to set up a new generation network.

Major publications:

Integrációelmélet és az Európai Unió fejlődésének első szakasza (Integration theory and the first stage of the EU development. EU Working Papers, Vol. I. No.I. KKF, Budapest, 1998, p. 116); A természetnek, a művészetnek, a tudománynak nevében (In the Name of Nature, Art and Science. In honour of the 70 year old Ferenc Kozma academic professor. Tamás Gáspár ed. BKÁE Jövőkutatási Kutatóközpont, Budapest, 2001)

Major publications with others:

Az átmenet vége (The End of Transition, Saldo, Budapest, 1999); Bevezetés az információs társadalomba (Introduction to Information Society, KIT Képzőművészeti Kiadó és Nyomda, Budapest, 1999); Előttünk és mögöttünk az ezredforduló II. (Before and after the Millenary, Vol. 2. BKÁE, Budapest, 2001); The Quest for the Futures: a Methodology Seminar in Futures Studies (Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku, 2001); The Youth for a Less Selfish Future. Budapest Futures Course 2001 (Futures Studies Centre, BUESPA, Budapest, 2002); Europe in the Perspective of Global Change (Polish Association for the Club of Rome, Oficíne Wydawnicza “Re-wasz”, Warsaw, 2003); Action for the Future. Budapest Futures Course 2003 (Futures Studies Centre, BUESPA, Budapest, 2004)

Other activities:

Tamás Gáspár has been studying history of music and culture for six semesters at Imre Földes’s course in the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. He is making good use of its output in his research and education. He is committed to his family and small children. He practices Zhong Juan Chi Kung (Qigong) regularly.

e-mail: tamas.gaspar@uni.corvinus.hu