While the future is unknowable, this intriguing temporal category has become a predominant topic in the discourse of modernity. However, less is known about the various ways in which actors engage with the tensions and contradictions of the future in strategy-making. Although previous insightful research has begun to address how social actors engage with tensions between, for example, near and distant futures, further understanding of how they synthesize such existing tensions in the process of strategy-making is necessary. Therefore, this paper presents a dialectical framework that discusses different tensions and contradictions of the future, processes of dialectical inquiry, and ways that social actors synthesize such tensions through the future-making practice of imagining. This study makes interrelated contributions to research into a practice-based perspective on the future and strategy-making. It also outlines future research opportunities regarding this essential concept.
