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Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
As natural resources become scarcer, giant companies of the old guard are in trouble. At Flow Talks Even Heggernes from Airbnb, Minister of the Environment Ville Niinistö, Marko Ahtisaari from MIT Media Lab, and Tero Ojanperä from Vision+ shed light on how resource scarcity next turns to transform consumer markets….
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Flow Festival expands as Demos Helsinki together with Slush and Flow bring the sharpest knives from the world of startups, smart cities and social movements to Flow Talks in Suvilahti on the 8th of August. Flow Talks Smartup Summit continues a series of talks on sustainable growth organised by Demos…
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After almost ten years of existence Demos Helsinki takes a remarkable step forward: we launch Demos Effect to help businesses to reach for markets growing from wicked opportunities. “Wicked opportunities” arise from “wicked problems”, a category of problems like the climate change, natural resources scarcity, obesity and other lifestyle diseases, that differ from…
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The European Democracy Shield is a timely and commendable initiative aimed at addressing the EU’s growing democratic challenges. However, it would benefit from a more human-centered approach focusing on citizen participation, civil society engagement, and more nuanced policies on digital regulation.
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This report shares how young people aged 14-19 helped shape Scotland’s Horizon Scanning through a participatory foresight process co-designed with Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament. It reveals insights on young people’s perspectives on topics such as climate, technology, democracy, and society more broadly, and shows how engaging them meaningfully can strengthen anticipatory governance. The methodology offers learnings and tools for governments seeking to embed long-term thinking into policy, and build trust and momentum towards shared large-scale goals.
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The answer isn’t less democracy, but more. New participatory and deliberative processes aimed at involving citizens in decision-making are gaining traction across Europe, but their long-term success depends on how well they are embedded into the public administration and society.
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Europe’s democratic resilience requires introspection, clear-sightedness and reimagination
September 16, 2025
The European Democracy Shield (EUDS) is being prepared to bolster the continent’s democratic resilience. If it isn’t to become one of innumerable democracy initiatives, EU institutions need to be clear-sighted about the causes and stakes of our present moment.
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Imaginaries on Sustainability Transformation – Report outlines three positive futures
May 19, 2025
Imagining futures where society has successfully undergone a sustainability transformation helps us envision a world in which today’s major negative trends have been brought under control. But what kind of positive futures have been proposed in recent years? At the request of the Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development, Demos Helsinki conducted a literature review and drafted three preliminary visions of such futures.
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The anticipatory policy cycle: not just preparing for the future, but influencing it
May 14, 2025
Governments that invest in foresight-driven policymaking are better positioned to shape the conditions that they operate in. This is how to build policies that both anticipate and influence the future.
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