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Our latest updates, thoughts, and events — as they roll out.
This autumn, Demos Helsinki has won several large grants for research projects from the most competitive research funding programs in the world. This strengthens Demos Helsinki’s research capabilities and positions our team strongly in the European and Finnish research ecosystems. NetZeroCities We are a research partner in the…
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In 2020, Demos Helsinki joined forces with an unlikely group of member organizations, activists, and professionals who are capable of initiating a Transformation. We called it UNTITLED. UNTITLED has grown into a global Alliance that aims to reimagine the central institutions of our society and to experiment on how to…
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Together with their citizens, three Finnish cities are exploring how the carbon footprint of their lifestyles can be reduced to a sustainable level. The work aims to meet the challenge posed by the intergovernmental panel on climate change IPCC, published at the beginning of August, which stated that the carbon…
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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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