Rebecca Freeth
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Based in South Africa, Rebecca Freeth is a practitioner and scholar whose work focuses on fostering meaningful collaboration across deep divides. For the last 25 years, she has facilitated dialogue-based processes designed to deepen awareness, connection, and creativity to move forward together. Together with her colleagues at Reos Partners, she leads social innovation labs, strategic change, and futures exercises.
Rebecca Freeth' doctoral research focused on the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of sustainability science. She was a senior fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS, formerly IASS, in Potsdam Germany) and is currently a member of the RIFS Advisory Board. She continues to support teams of inter- and transdisciplinary researchers to navigate the complexities of project-based collaborations.
Rebecca Freeth will join the Paris IAS in April 2027 for a one-month writing residency.
Research topics
Interdisciplinary collaboration; Structural racism and the work of whiteness; Reparative futures; Deep democracy; Participatory futures thinking in fragile contexts
Futures thinking in fragile contexts: Navigating hope and despair together
In volatile environments—marked by violent polarization or climate crisis—thinking collectively about the future is an immense challenge. When groups of people affected by volatility hold deep, conflicting perspectives or harbor mutual blame, envisioning a shared tomorrow often feels impossible. Participatory futures thinking methodologies aim to bridge this divide, yet they face a common pitfall: the human imagination often defaults to either dystopian dread or naive, false hope. Neither extreme catalyzes the grounded action required for real change.
This project unites a diverse community of seasoned peacebuilders and futures thinkers who are developing a methodology rooted in "thrutopia"—a concept popularized by speculative fiction writer Manda Scott that acknowledges the reality of hardship while refusing to get mired in it.
This work posits that by constructing narratives through facilitated participatory processes that embrace both grief and possibility, groups of people can move beyond binaries and see a wider range of actions to take. Rebecca is lead author of a manifesto co-authored with members of this community of practice that will share hard-won insights and propose ways to craft realistic, robust stories of the future. The IAS writing fellowship provides an opportunity for this community to finalize their approach, offering a roadmap for others to take meaningful action in even the most fractured contexts.
Key publications
Hamann, R., Nilsson, W., Drimie, S., & Freeth, R, "Researchers convening dialogue to
address grand challenges: Affordances, tensions, and the shift to deep dialogue", Strategic Organization, 23(1), 98-133, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14761270241279132
Freeth R, Akpan, A, Sonday, M, "Dismantling structural racism in organizational systems", Journal of Awareness-Based Systems Change 3(2): 175-195, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47061/jasc.v3i2.6282
Caniglia G, Freeth R, Luederitz C et al. "Practical wisdom and virtue ethics for
knowledge co-production in sustainability science". Nat Sustain, 6, 493–501, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-01040-1
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