37 Four approaches to anticipatory governance 2 important and under-analyzed element, namely the ultimate aim of engaging with anticipatory governance. In scrutinizing the selected literature to ascertain diverse perspectives on these three component elements, we did not pre-specify their possible content. Instead, we read the literature in an open-ended manner, with an eye to identifying inductively the range of ways in which the future was being conceptualized and presented; the governance and policy actions in the present to be taken; and the array of possible ends to be realized. Doing so allowed us to identify four main approaches to anticipatory governance in the reviewed literature, which we present and discuss in detail in Section 4, and synthesize in the form of Figure 2.1. We also assessed the selected literature against a fourth element: the range of tools and methods of anticipation relied upon in diverse approaches to anticipatory governance, as well as roles proposed for stakeholders. In section 5, we outline diverse anticipatory methods and tools, and their alignment with the four approaches to anticipatory governance identified earlier. Figure 2.2 synthesizes and presents an overview of this aspect of our analysis. While broad categorizations are immanent to any literature review, we should note at the outset that our intention here is not to imply strict boundaries between these four approaches. Nor do we seek to rigidly link the four anticipatory governance approaches to specific authors, scholarly articles, or research traditions in the social and sustainability sciences. Instead, we view these as ideal types, with our aim being to critically interrogate and broadly map diverse perspectives on an important phenomenon in the study and practice of sustainability: forward-looking anticipatory governance that engages with diverse visions of sustainable futures. We should also note that not all 144 papers we reviewed are referenced in the article, instead, we chose representative writings to illustrate the four approaches we identify here. 2.3. Anticipating and seeking to govern the future: a brief overview Before presenting the four approaches to anticipatory governance in the following section, we first provide here a broad, general overview of how the concept of anticipatory governance is addressed, both explicitly and implicitly, in the reviewed literature. This broad overview provides the context for our more specific discussion of the four approaches to anticipatory governance in section 4.
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