Latest content
Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
In Imagining Change Through Science – Demos Helsinki Research Encounters, we explored how science and research have shaped societal change.
→ Continue reading
Demos Helsinki is currently involved in 14 Horizon Europe projects. From exploring the societal impacts of new technologies to tackling climate challenges, these projects reflect a growing demand for research that sparks systemic change. Discover how we are working across disciplines to shape fairer, more sustainable futures.
→ Continue reading
These three research projects are: 1) Reducing polarisation via material participation (MaDem); 2) Coastal waters under pressure – safeguarding a healthy Gulf of Finland in a changing geopolitical and environmental landscape (CoWup); and 3) Safe Water for All (WaterFall).
→ Continue reading
This policy brief focuses on short-term action (2026-2028) around AI governance and provides practical guidelines for experts and policymakers. It introduces a framework that embeds democratic pillars — participation, freedom, equality, transparency, knowledge, and the rule of law — directly into the entire AI lifecycle.
→ Continue reading
While substantial efforts have been made to identify and address issues of environmental justice in urban areas, the question of how to consider and plan for the concerns of humans and other species remains a major challenge. This paper provides a conceptualisation of what ‘justice’ might mean from a multispecies justice (MSJ) perspective within the contexts of nature-based solutions (NBS) and urban sustainability planning. We offer a wider conceptualisation of representation, distribution and agency compared with dominant framings in NBS scholarship and provide exemplar cases on how to integrate these concepts in planning discourse. We critically discuss some of the challenges and opportunities of considering MSJ when confronted by established procedures and practices in NBS science and decision-making, focusing on (i) moving beyond existing standards for biodiversity conservation; (ii) embracing MSJ as a process and practice; and (iii) building the capacity of NBS planners to work with MSJ.
→ Continue reading
The report provides insights into how the dominant ways of thinking about growth have taken shape and become entrenched: What has changed over the decades? And what might the future look like? Finnish discourse is also placed in the broader context of international societal and scientific debates, as well as global shifts in the operating environment.
→ Continue reading
- All
- AI
- Business
- Career opportinuty
- Cities
- Civil service
- Construction
- Democracy
- Economy
- Foresight
- Health & Wellbeing
- Industry & innovation
- Justice
- Public governance
- Research
- Skills & work
- Society
- Sustainability & climate action
- Sustainability governance
- Technology
Join us for an interactive deep-dive learning experience on imagining, structuring, organising and mobilising for long-term & systemic societal change. Hosted by Transition Collective in partnership with TIAL and Demos Helsinki.
→ Continue reading
Y-Lab – new affordable housing concepts for citizens’ needs
April 7, 2016
Y-Foundation, Finland’s biggest and internationally recognized non-profit housing company, aims to offer reasonably priced rental accommodations for citizens. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Y-Foundation co-operated with think tank Demos Helsinki to envision and develop the future of housing. In this collaboration Demos Helsinki and Y-apartments, founded by Y-Foundation, created new…
→ Continue reading
How emergence of smart urban services will change the way we work, move, and live in cities?
April 6, 2016
For the past half-century, the central functions of our cities – housing, mobility, work and commerce – have remained more or less unchanged. Technical improvements have been incremental, business models have not diversified. Market structures are in many cases still very similar to how they were fifty years ago. It…
→ Continue reading
Why do our cities change so slowly? There are 4 reasons behind it
March 29, 2016
There are established policies, practices and market structures that on the one hand make our urban planning machine automatic, but, on the other hand, make it resistant to change, even when change is strongly needed. So why do our cities change so slowly? 1 THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT IS DEVELOPED BY…
→ Continue reading