Topic
Society
Commentary
March 2020. It only takes a day to receive a text message from the Prime Minister informing you of a lockdown. It only takes a week for unemployment statistics to record-breakingly surge. It only takes a month and the healthcare system is on the brink of collapse. Will it take…
Aleksi Neuvonen and Demos Helsinki team summarise three important turning points that shaped the future in 2019. We also list three themes to follow in 2020.
There is a difference between ‘hearing’ young people and ‘working with’ young people, Demos Helsinki’s Sofia Rahikainen emphasised in ministers’ discussion.
In Finland, almost two thirds of PhD graduates work outside academic research 3 years after graduation. This is an understated route to societal impact of universities. Based on our survey among University of Helsinki PhD students, the imaginable “future horizons” of doctoral candidates are still mostly linked to academic research.
It has been exciting to read the news and commentaries on the preliminary results of the Finnish basic income experiment. Seldom if ever have we seen so many articles published on an academic study almost in real time, written by journalists, experts and enthusiasts from all over the globe. Two…
Publications
Public debate in Finland suggests that care is in crisis, but “crisis” and a fixation on resourcing care services do not capture the full picture of why and how our need for care has changed and how we can meet that need. This publication by Demos Helsinki identifies that the care crisis signals the need for a care transition in which care cannot be confined to industrial frameworks.
How can an organization or a society become wiser? This paper by Demos Helsinki Fellow Geoff Mulgan shares some answers with a framework that cuts across different disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, computer science and organisational design.
We find it easy to imagine apocalypse and disaster; or to imagine new generations of technology. But we find it much harder than in the past to imagine a better society a generation or more into the future. In this paper, Demos Helsinki Fellow Geoff Mulgan sets out thoughts on what, how, and who to address this gap.
Projects
Despite being an established indicator of economic growth, GDP is debated to overlook the true essence of citizens’ quality of life and overall wellbeing. This project aims to improve knowledge on indicators beyond GDP, alternative and more sustainable policy options, and scenarios for a sustainable future.
The social contract encounters mounting challenges in contemporary society, leading to friction and distrust among citizens towards democratic institutions. The CO3 project is dedicated to developing and promoting a democratic, inclusive, and open model of social contracts, embodying political and social resilience amongst significant societal challenges, crises, and anti-democratic tendencies.
How we care for each other is not an issue of healthcare budgets; it is an issue of a long-term, multi-sectoral change. This project seeks to show that there is no amount of money that can revert the current state of affairs. Instead, the care transition requires that we transform, disrupt and renew almost everything that we do.
People
Janne Sala
Whether the topic is strengthening democratic participation or finding ways to reorganize food production chains, Janne is a rising expert in the intersection of developing societal change and climate resilience. They combine their academic education in the social sciences with sharp and international political networking to harness a global skillset…
Johannes Jauhiainen
At Demos Helsinki, Johannes Jauhiainen focuses on participation, interaction, impact, and science-society relations within the CoWup and CO3 research projects. He is passionate about public innovation, new forms of decision-making, democratic development, geopolitics, and the role of cities as pioneers of societal transformation. Before joining Demos Helsinki, Johannes worked on…
Katariina Viljamaa
Operating at the intersection of technology and society, Katariina is your go-to person when it comes to communicating projects on the societal impacts of technology and digitalisation. As a freelance marketer and event producer, she can wrap high-level research in neat packages and concepts. With an engineering degree in her…
Anna Björk
Anna is a political scientist whose academic love affairs include research on political concepts, societal impacts of emerging technologies, and temporality. Her current and upcoming research analyses societal transformations from the perspectives of the EU digital policy, contemporary social contracts, and inclusivity. Alongside doing research, Anna is also working closely…
Maria Malho
Maria is a political scientist specialising in foresight, scenarios and futures thinking to create both high-quality research as well as actionable visions and strategies for making desirable futures easier to reach. She has extensive experience in leading and facilitating projects and research processes on a wide array of topics ranging…
Julia Jousilahti
Julia is a social scientist working in Demos Helsinki’s Emancipatory Economy team. As the economy is a man-made system and not a force of nature, Julia is convinced we can build a better economic system – one that admits the fundamental interconnectedness with nature and guarantees the basic assets of…
Johannes Nuutinen
Leading societal transformations is no easy task that we have chosen here at Demos Helsinki. It requires constant strategic planning and new initiatives. Luckily, Johannes brings clarity to all the ambiguity surrounding half-drawn visions of impact. This means finding the relevant concrete steps to implement new forms of collaboration or…
Johannes Mikkonen
Johannes is dedicated to redefining the terms and conditions of our digital futures by exploring the ways to reshape our current sociotechnical systems, advising on policies to remaster technologies and forming visions of emerging alternative futures. At Demos Helsinki, Johannes has worked with various ministries and Prime Minister’s Offices around…
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
Sorry, we couldn't find any themes.
Letter: The Unkept Promise of Globalisation Does Not Mean Localism Will Alone Solve This Crisis
May 19, 2020
In the midst of a global pandemic, most countries are opting for national and local solutions, mostly discarding any global or international approaches. Though this path may lead to increased system resiliency and environmental sustainability, sole localism will not be sufficient to solve this crisis or address the other challenges…