Scan-4-Light: A Horizon Scanning / Trend Monitoring Project for the Rockefeller Foundation

SCAN-4-Light is a project presenting the results from an exploratory scanning of the contents of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Searchlight newsletters. This “internalistic” analysis is complemented by an “externalistic” comparison with an external source (in this case Millennium Project’s State of the Future 2011.) The presentation focuses on one case, which is intended to illustrate the potential of this approach. The scanning indicates which countries are most often mentioned, and which (of over 200) developmental issues receive most attention, at least in terms of the frequency with which key words are used (“Poverty”, not surprisingly, is top – but then “Energy” is second). The method allows us to explore how far specific issues are cited within specific countries and regions, with interesting differences emerging; even at this highly aggregated level, challenging questions are raised for further analysis.