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Imaginaries on Sustainability Transformation – Report outlines three positive futures

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

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

Two key lessons from our work in the Mayors for Economic Growth project, in collaboration with UNDP: 1) Innovation needs to occur at multiple levels and 2) If we’re to be effective, we must remain humble.


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16 Horizon projects later, our goal is the same

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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Demos Helsinki is part of three SRC-funded research projects on democracy and water security

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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A time to build – shaping the next generation of public institutions

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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Skills and education in the sustainability transition

Over the last few years, the transition to a sustainable future has increasingly started to determine the direction of society and the economy — most notably through investments in new technologies and real capital. However, how can we make these investments matter if we lack the skills to utilise and develop them?


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The changing role of the state in the economy

In this publication, we suggest that the premises of our economies are in flux, requiring the state to take on a new role in governing the economy: the role of the orchestrator. An orchestrating state conducts its economic policy by closely working with its key stakeholders to achieve explicitly and democratically defined goals.


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From fortress to foresight: A new way of governing migration

Migration is a complex, multi-dimensional, and fast-changing domain, and yet, we have yet to see a long-term, humane, and sustainable approach to migration governance. What if we applied foresight methodologies to migration?


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