Publications
Reports, analysis and policy recommendations for brave leaders and communities.
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.
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This policy brief focuses on short-term action (2026-2028) around AI governance and provides practical guidelines for experts and policymakers. It introduces a framework that embeds democratic pillars — participation, freedom, equality, transparency, knowledge, and the rule of law — directly into the entire AI lifecycle.
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The Circular Design Toolkit helps policymakers move beyond recycling by focusing on upstream design decisions that shape sustainable value chains and industrial transformation.
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Decades of low growth in Finland may be a symptom of a weakened capacity for renewal inside organisations, including the country’s top businesses. In this report, we explore the role that Finnish companies play in the current growth environment and document what business leaders think should be done next. We conclude with key recommendations for boards and executive teams to create the conditions for a renewed purpose in business, one that fits the current Finnish context and reveals underused capacity for renewal.
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The report provides insights into how the dominant ways of thinking about growth have taken shape and become entrenched: What has changed over the decades? And what might the future look like? Finnish discourse is also placed in the broader context of international societal and scientific debates, as well as global shifts in the operating environment.
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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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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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How can countries strengthen their capacity for long-term governance and ensure that future generations are taken into account in decision-making? In this white paper, we highlight ways to promote anticipatory governance based on the views of key Finnish stakeholders. By translating the Finnish experience into a broader context, we aim to provide universally applicable strategies for advancing long-term governance and promoting intergenerational justice.
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Experimentalism is a ‘hidden third option’ that overcomes pre-existing dichotomies and can update the governance of R&I funding while steering it towards societal transformation.
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What are the most appropriate institutional arrangements for effective governance? How can governance systems effectively operate across different levels, such as local, regional, national, and supranational? How can governments improve their capacity to evaluate policies, learn from successes and failures, and adapt to changing circumstances? By transforming the civil service, we can answer these questions.
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In the discussion paper, we set out to explore what the main opportunities and concerns that accompany the Fourth Industrial Revolution for policymaking and knowledge systems are particularly in middle-income countries.
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Universal Basic Income (UBI) has emerged as a potential solution. However, it is not enough to merely reform systems of redistribution. We in Demos Helsinki believe that it is time to examine social security from a broader perspective.
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We believe governments of the 21st Century are vision-driven, continuously learning, and unbounded. This is our vision on Public Sector Innovation of the Next Era.
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This manual presents a model for strategic partnerships between small companies (bees) and large companies (trees) for the co-creation and development of groundbreaking products and services. This need is particularly relevant in the field of consumer cleantech, where changes in consumer behaviour are often radical and systemic. Small companies and startups…
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The Experiment Co-Creation Platform (ECP) is a model for collaboration and experimenting dedicated in delivering sustainable solutions to wicked urban problems. It brings together cities, higher education institutions and non-academic collaborators such as companies and NGOs to develop research-based teams’ solutions through experimenting in a real-life setting.
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The Nordic Digital Promise aims to inspire politicians, officials, entrepreneurs and a broad range of people to see the social opportunities that these new technologies offer – and make our way to the future that can be described as digital paradise.
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