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Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
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.
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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).
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We are pleased to announce that the UNDP’s Istanbul Innovation Days (IID), taking place in March 2025, will focus on shaping the next generation of public institutions for a secure and prosperous world.
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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.
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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.
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With the increasing culture of applying piloting as part of technology innovation, the need for understanding its societal implications is becoming more crucial. With the aim of understanding better the power relations, tensions and agencies pivotal to negotiating and embedding ethics across processes, we consider utilizing a framework of “design logics” to the data.
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From Five-Year Plans to Alternative Futures: 7 Ways to Be Smarter about the Future
March 13, 2015
I spent the past week in Dar es Salaam teaching scenario thinking to the Tanzanian Planning Commission, Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology (MCST), and several regional leaders. The visit was part of the TANZICT project, a bilateral collaboration between the MCST and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland….
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How do you change government from reactive to proactive?
March 4, 2015
The Design for Government (DfG) course consists of 25 talented and committed students in multidisciplinary teams, addressing real-world problems set forth by the Finnish government. The kick-off seminar attracted 150 participants from nine different ministries and other institutions, to discuss why traditional decision-making needs new ways of doing things. The…
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Can strong foresight orientation make a nation successful?
February 21, 2015
Foresight on different terrains Foresight understanding is critical to any company these days – wicked problems, disruption caused by ICT and a globalizing economy all mean that businesses must be able to understand the future. But what about entire countries? Could strong foresight orientation be a critical factor in making…
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