Topic
Cities
Commentary
Y-Foundation, Finland’s biggest and internationally recognized non-profit housing company, aims to offer reasonably priced rental accommodations for citizens. To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Y-Foundation co-operated with think tank Demos Helsinki to envision and develop the future of housing. In this collaboration Demos Helsinki and Y-apartments, founded by Y-Foundation, created new…
For the past half-century, the central functions of our cities – housing, mobility, work and commerce – have remained more or less unchanged. Technical improvements have been incremental, business models have not diversified. Market structures are in many cases still very similar to how they were fifty years ago. It…
There are established policies, practices and market structures that on the one hand make our urban planning machine automatic, but, on the other hand, make it resistant to change, even when change is strongly needed. So why do our cities change so slowly? 1 THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT IS DEVELOPED BY…
Cities are not like they used to be. Cities all over the world are repurposing themselves and building new narratives of their future success. While the rest of society defines progress in increasingly economic terms, cities have started thinking more about their population and their capacity to create a flourishing environment. The…
Ageing population is a tricky challenge for human-orientated welfare systems. Traditionally Finland, as well as other Nordic countries, has been emphasizing the societal benefits that happen through supporting self-imposed learning and coping of people. The number of over-75s is expected to double in the next two decades in Finland –…
Publications
A group of motivated cities and municipalities in Finland joined a one-year problem-solving journey to address the numerous interrelated challenges that slow down sustainable city transition. Demos Helsinki coordinated the subgroup, which focused on the “challenge bundle” of urban planning.
Achieving an impactful decrease in homelessness — and preventing it from happening in the first place — requires significant structural and operational changes. While Housing First holds great potential to enable systemic change in homelessness, it also risks being interpreted and deployed as a mere housing management tool — a misunderstanding of tragic consequences.
Over the past decades, the term “smart city” has been used as a catch-all for various city development initiatives and concepts. With this joint Nordic Smart City Roadmap, we want to promote conceptual, ethical, and political guidelines that honor a more human-centric, inclusive, and collaborative approach to developing smarter and more sustainable communities.
Projects
The ongoing biodiversity crisis demonstrates that we need better ways to live with nature in cities. The MUST project, employing a multispecies transition lens, aims to enhance the understanding and visibility of multispecies needs. This, in turn, will foster improved deliberation and action among stakeholders.
Demos Helsinki and the City of Tallinn, the European Green Capital 2023, joined forces to create an innovative approach to sustainability governance in cities. Together, we embarked on a journey to develop the concept of sustainability governance, aware that cities could hold the key to fostering sustainable transformation and have…
The Sustainable City programme, coordinated by Finland’s Ministry of the Environment, convenes a group of motivated cities and municipalities to join a one-year problem-solving journey to address the numerous interrelated challenges that slow down sustainable city transition. The challenges are related to urban planning that considers sustainability goals and prosperous…
People
Tanya Sahdev
As part of the New Governance team at Demos Helsinki, Tanya contributes to reimagining and reshaping governance systems for a more inclusive and sustainable future. She brings a unique perspective to her role at Demos Helsinki with her background in design, which empowers her to see the bigger picture while…
Lina Forsman
De Bruxelles à Helsinki! Lina is our expert on multilevel governance from a city perspective. In her previous role, she ensured that cities’ viewpoints were considered in the EU legislative process. Focusing on the climate transition and legislation to tackle pollution in cities, she has drafted and executed numerous advocacy…
Janne Rinne
Janne is a sustainability enthusiast with extensive experience in environmental policy, sustainability transformation, and project management. Janne’s background is a mix of research and hands-on innovation projects. Working as a researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute, he acquired a broad perspective on environmental policy and governance. At the innovation company…
Mariela Urra Schiaffino
Design isn’t just about building objects, it’s also about building a future, and, for Mariela, it’s all about a sustainable one. Through utilising tools of design, imagination, and creativity, she reimagines societal relations to nature. These new perspectives are vital to building a sustainable future for all. Design is an…
Liisa Perjo
Liisa is a social scientist who thrives when she gets to analyse, understand, and explain how things work in policy and urban planning. She is especially into exploring approaches that make cities better drivers for just and inclusive sustainability transitions. In her work, she supports European cities and regions in…
Yu-Yi Huynh
How can citizen engagement transform cities? If you’re searching for the answer, no need to look further: Yu-Yi is here to help! Her knowledge of citizen engagement processes and participation is sought after. Justice in climate action is something we value deeply and Yu-Yi is an expert in its implementation…
Johannes Klein
Johannes is our experienced climate change adaptation researcher. With a special focus on the governance of adaptation in an urban and regional context, he knows how to find pathways to sustainable and resilient communities through academic research. He is inspired to contribute in just, transformative, and inclusive adaptation action. Being…
Oya Duman
Do you ever find yourself thinking about how to mobilise various stakeholders to achieve fair, sustainable, and joyful cities of the future? Oya sure does! She seamlessly integrates her professional background in architecture with a keen research focus on collaborative urban planning processes. Thanks to this, she really knows her…
Seona Candy
Seona is leading the cross-cutting theme of socio-ecological justice and just transitions at Demos Helsinki. This involves not only how to collaboratively imagine sustainable and equitable futures, but also how to design, implement and monitor transitions to ensure the way to get there is fair, legitimate and socially just. Seona…
Lilybell Evergreen
Lilybell is our go-to climate governance expert. We all know the need for a sustainable future but there are not many pathways to reach it. Governance, however, offers one and Lilybell knows how to utilise this. Having worked with several European cities, including the City of Tallinn, the European Green…
Erkki Perälä
Did you know that cities account for over 70% of global emissions? Erkki sure does, which is why he works on supporting the decarbonisation of several European cities. He is especially intrigued by connecting the narratives of climate change and the built environment, and finds cities a practically-sized unit to…
Kari Jalonen
Kari Jalonen is an organisational researcher whose work at Demos Helsinki focuses on planning, performing and developing the research operations at Demos Helsinki. Kari defended his Ph.D.(Econ.) on city strategy at the Hanken School of Economics in 2017, and has since worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and…
Kaisa Schmidt-Thomé
Kaisa works with one foot in the practical, one in research. She is our in-house Docent, i.e, Adjunct Professor in Strategic Planning for Urban Sustainability at Tampere University. She is happy to be on-call on this topic and on anything related to regenerative, joyful cities. Kaisa is not a fan…
Otto-Wille Koste
Otto-Wille is a senior expert in the Regenerative Infrastructure Team. He focuses on cities’ sustainability transformations. Cities are under constant change opposed by various phenomena, and Otto-Wille develops processes and solutions with which cities and other actors in the urban sphere can foster required transformations. Otto-Wille holds a master’s degree…
Aleksi Neuvonen
Aleksi Neuvonen is a recognised expert and thinker on understanding the change (and unchange) of societies and organisations. Aleksi holds PhD honors from Tampere University and Radboud University Nijmegen. During his career, Aleksi has published over 30 reports, books or academic articles, focusing primarily on methods and tools for transformative…
Leena Alanko
Leena is our go-to person for developing Demos Helsinki’s sales processes, ensuring that new opportunities both align with our societal impact goals and meet the needs of our partners and clients. She is passionate about reducing health inequalities, promoting the wellbeing of people and the planet, and clarifying the role…
Roope Mokka
Roope is all about the future. For many the future seems scary, but where some see problems Roope sees solutions. He has an exceptional mindset to see the pathway for societal transformation. He gathers impactful alliances through various fields to work together with a shared goal. Whether it is learning…
Juha Leppänen
It’s easy to talk the talk, but we take pride in also walking the walk. And ensuring that this happens is our very own Juha. How to build operational hypotheses to truly drive change forward? What is the “form” in “transformation”? How to organize collective action? Juha isn’t afraid to…
Olli Bremer
Olli has worked with us since early 2016, working across all sorts of projects and in a variety of capacities — for example, serving as Managing Director. Thus, he is a go-to person whenever we need to be able to connect different aspects of our work and sew together a…
Themes
Cities can lead collective action. We help city leaders and administrations transform their governance, equipping them with the mindset, tools, and knowledge to address societal challenges.
Smart talk with Mehmet Kaplan
April 8, 2016
Hyperconnected Neighborhoods, Transparent Cities, Smart Meetings and Transportation-on-Demand. These are some topics we’ll present and talk about on April 11 together with Mehmet Kaplan, Sweden’s Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Information Technology. The discussion is based on Demos Helsinki’s new report on the great potential that the massive initiatives in…