Latest content
Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
The services of housing are underdeveloped, if not non-existent. Yet housing makes up the largest share of both our ecological footprint and our national income. This was the starting point of our joint project with the biggest constructor of the Helsinki area, Foundation for Student Housing in the Helsinki Region…
→ Continue reading
Kesäkuussa 2012 Ajatushautomo Demos Helsinki ja valtion muotoilutoimikunta kokosivat 120 pohjoismaista muotoilun asiantuntijaa piirtämään päiväksi kuvaa muotoilun suunnasta. Tähän muotoilupääkaupunkivuoden Design Round Table – tapahtumaan osallistuneet muotoiluammattilaiset visioivat, miltä hyvin muotoiltu Suomi näyttää vuonna 2030 ja pohtivat, mitä toimenpiteitä tarvitaan tänään, jotta parempi tulevaisuus toteutuu. Tuloksena syntyneeseen julkaisuun “Muotoiltu huominen – suomalaisen…
→ Continue reading
Helsinki was the World Design Capital in 2012. The central stage and forum of the design year, the WDC pavilion was a centre for entertainment and learning from May till September 2012. Demos Helsinki curated the programme including discussion on poverty, design markets, lunch yoga, a short film festival, and…
→ Continue reading
Robots are moving beyond factories into care, services, construction and logistics. Robotics Scenarios 2040 sets out four possible futures for Finnish working life and seven jointly agreed recommendations for the government formed after the 2027 parliamentary elections. The project also presents seven claims the partners could not agree on, for politicians and society to debate.
→ Continue reading
Nordic public administrations are among Europe’s most digitally advanced. FEPS policy study authored by Demos Helsinki examines three automated systems in Norway, Finland, and Sweden and sets out thirteen recommendations for public organisations and policymakers on governing automation.
→ Continue reading
Europe’s need for care is growing and changing, and treating it as a crisis misreads the change. Demos Helsinki’s report, The European Care Contract, frames care as a transition and part of the social contract and asks how the duty to give care could become as universal as the right to receive it.
→ Continue reading
- All
- AI
- Business
- Cities
- Civil service
- Construction
- Democracy
- Economy
- Foresight
- Health & Wellbeing
- Industry & innovation
- Justice
- Public governance
- Research
- Skills & work
- Society
- Sustainability & climate action
- Sustainability governance
- Technology
🗓️ 17.11.2026
⏰ 15.30.-17.00
📍 Nordic Pavilion @ COP31 Blue Zone – Antalya, Turkye
→ Continue reading
What does a stronger Europe actually require? Demos Helsinki’s comments on the State of the Union.
September 18, 2026
Drawing on three EU-funded research projects, we examine the tensions behind von der Leyen’s State of the Union address. Technological sovereignty risks deepening the dependencies it aims to reduce; climate resilience requires funding architecture that lets mitigation and adaptation reinforce each other; and Europe’s strength cannot be measured by economic indicators alone. A stronger Europe, we argue, depends less on ambition than on governance capable of delivering it.
→ Continue reading
The next frontier for circularity is governance
September 17, 2026
For cross-cutting policy issues, like the transition to circularity, Demos Helsinki has developed a model that works: beating uncertainty through action, empowering relevant stakeholders with autonomy in problem solving, building a shared coordination structure, and adapting through learning what works. The model has been proven to move the circularity agenda forward, despite its complexity and fluctuating political significance.
→ Continue reading
Governing with cities: Europe’s overlooked governance infrastructure
July 21, 2026
The Cities Mission functioned as a natural experiment that revealed an overlooked property of European governance: cities do not merely implement policy more effectively; they generate governing capacity and governance knowledge that Europe should intentionally incorporate into policy design through a revised multilevel governance architecture.
→ Continue reading