Epilogue
Latvians live in a unique and beautiful country, and are testing new age of civilisation. They confront with a great number of complicated and almost unexplored challenges. One can stand on the position that this society brings forth a distinct type of community, which has experienced particular way of adaptation to the world in the last decade, and that model is to be denoted as "x" for European knowledge-based society.
In this contribution, the author focused only on some key issues of the Latvia's society, and did not go into detail about trends in economic, demographics, security, and other domains and their interrelations. At the same time, as we known, the new digital age witnesses a global war against international terrorism, and there is the most serious problem for all European countries. In the article, some lines are drawn on options how Latvians would actualise paradigm shifts facing with challenges of knowledge-based world. A lot depends on common sense of power elites, both on their strategic thinking and every day's political decisions. For us this is a new track, and there is not much time left until 2009-2010 when citizens both in Latvia and the EU will evaluate the results of the Lisbon strategy's implementation.
What will happen in the long run depends on a "product of human actions and random events" - it is the future (53) We can try to gain an insight into futures and shape them for ourselves by assimilation of knowledge and freedom. While working on the project about Latvia's society, the following belief based on research becomes more and more vigorous: Latvians have all the prerequisites for placing themselves among advanced, creative societies. "Foresight provides options rather then predictions. Foresight provides guidance to all actors and reduces uncertainty and ambiguity." (54) These basic thoughts presented by Professor Ortwin Renn are worth to be hightlighted in the end of our conversation on the time yet to come in Latvia.
_______________________________53. Renn, O. Foresight : Challenges for Europe's Regions. EU Conference in Brussels: Europe's regions shaping the future - the role of foresight. September 24-25, 2002. http://www.regional-foresight.de/download/04Renn.pdf
54. Ibid.