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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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Recent years have witnessed the growing number of more sustainable products, services and experimental social innovation initiatives. This signals that sustainable consumption and lifestyles may be achievable for a greater number of people than ever in post-industrial societies. However, a lot of imagination is needed to understand how the shift…
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In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of more sustainable products, services, and experimental bottom-up initiatives. They have signaled new hope that more sustainable ways of living are achievable for all, while celebrating diversity, in post-industrial societies.
Despite these developments, existing promising sustainable living practices are not enough as they remain dwarfed by the unsustainable impacts of the average European’s current lifestyles.
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It is a common misconception that material scarcity – be it climate change or the peak production of natural resources from oil to phosphor – would lead into a similar linear development in our lives that the increased wealth and expansion of the middle classes did, except with a downward trajectory. This paper presents an alternative view; a view that takes a look at the actual material footprints of people from several European countries and the lives behind the footprints.
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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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Innovating urban development: Lessons from M4EG & moving beyond growth
April 17, 2025
Two key lessons from our work in the Mayors for Economic Growth project, in collaboration with UNDP Europe and Central Asia: 1) Innovation needs to occur at multiple levels and 2) If we’re to be effective, we must remain humble.
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