Causal Layered Analysis and the Possibility of Future Studies in the political sphere: The Application of Post structuralism in Understanding Future

The main problem in methodology is that what method should be used to achieve the most valid and reliable episteme/knowledge? In this view, all of current methodologies from behaviorism and positivism to post-behaviorism and post structuralism try to explain the way of achieving knowledge from their own point of view. But future studies are supposed to use other common methods in social sciences to give an understanding of future and related scenarios. Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is one of future studies methods that uses a poststructuralist perspective and combines four different levels of analysis to find out the causes and trends of the formation of different future scenarios. This method horizontally and vertically investigates the problem, using four levels of litany, social system and structures, discourse/worldview and myth/metaphor. CLA goes beyond structures and studies the possibility of formation of different futures. This paper explains the methodology of CLA and its application in politics as a poststructuralist method.