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Governments can steer with wellbeing at the core (but nobody said it was easy)

Governments keep promising change and then hitting the same walls with the old machinery. Reorienting governance around human wellbeing is both urgent and possible, and the work continues even when the political climate turns.


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Economic policy is no longer enough

Economic policy cannot be a replacement for good governance. In this part of human history, it is understanding what is at stake — profoundly human wishes for a dignified and meaningful life — that will have to shape all policy, including economic policy.


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Finland, what is our promise for future generations? 

Foresight Friday 2025 brought together policymakers and global experts to discuss Finland’s long-term responsibilities to future generations and intergenerational fairness. The question remains open, and it belongs to all of us: what is our promise for future generations?


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Why Co-Creation: We need democracy in democracies

The real meaning of co-creation and participatory processes is not listening to more opinions and fine-tuning the outcomes accordingly but honestly open-ended deliberation and distributed decision-making on things that matter to us. That is how these processes can bring more democracy in democracy. Outi Kuittinen from Demos Helsinki talks to…


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Demos at Slush: Governing the Platforms

Our societies are undergoing fundamental change driven by the emergence of platforms. The way people come together, communicate and create value is changing. In a possible future, all of our interactions with strangers will be facilitated by global digital platforms: from trade to meetings to sex to services and peer-help….


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Which smart city will be the first one loved by its citizens?

  Smart city has become an umbrella concept bringing together strategies for reinventing cities utilizing ICT. Smart city promises drastic leap in energy efficiency, less congestion, more humane conditions, in hot and crowded urban spaces, and overall responsiveness to needs of urban dwellers. Until now, the concept of smart city…


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Towards more systemic crisis governance: lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic in Finland

Finland managed the Covid-19 pandemic comparatively well. Yet the longer the crisis lasted, the more visible the limits of the governance system became. This brief examines what a prolonged crisis revealed about institutional strength, societal vulnerabilities, and the kind of governance future crises demand.


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Better is possible: why — and how — business leadership can be renewed

Decades of low growth in Finland may be a symptom of a weakened capacity for renewal inside organisations, including the country’s top businesses. In this report, we explore the role that Finnish companies play in the current growth environment and document what business leaders think should be done next. We conclude with key recommendations for boards and executive teams to create the conditions for a renewed purpose in business, one that fits the current Finnish context and reveals underused capacity for renewal.


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Sufficiency in Everything — Understanding and living within the limits of “enough”

Finland, like all countries of the Global North, is currently dependent on economic growth. Yet future growth may be very limited and uncertain – and decoupling it from increasing environmental harm will not be easy. Could the principle of sufficiency help us navigate towards better futures?


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Master class: Institutionalising for impact

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.


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