Demos Helsinki

Deadline for City Innovation Expert (French-speaking) position extended to 4th April! 📣 We'd like to inform you that the deadline for the City Innovation Expert (French-speaking) application has been extended to 4th April. Additionally, the call for EU Urban Policy Expert is open until 30th March, and the Expression of Interest for experienced leaders and experts in city innovations remains open until further notice. Is city innovation or urban policy one of your biggest areas of impact? Apply now! 📝

Measuring sustainable and inclusive wellbeing: a multidimensional dashboard approach by the JRC In the 2023 Strategic Foresight Report, the European Commission announced the Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing (SIWB) initiative. The initiative recognised that GDP is useful for understanding economic progress but falls short when it comes to measuring quality of life, inclusiveness, and sustainability, and that there is a need for complementary indicators to capture all aspects of life. To fill this gap, an inter-service working group started developing a multidimensional dashboard that integrates existing frameworks and indicators to offer a more holistic view of wellbeing — encompassing both people and the planet. The SIWB framework comprises 6 components: 🟣 Wellbeing today 🟣Social and economic resources for the future wellbeing 🟣Resilience 🟣Nature and planetary boundaries 🟣Inclusiveness 🟣Institutional capacity and quality The development process was rigorous, narrowing down over 1,000 potential measures to a concise set of 50 indicators. The working group also proposed “synthetic measures” — measures that are combined from inter-related indicators — that allow simplification of complex data sets and high-level political communication. These indicators offer a tool to track the wellbeing of the EU’s member states and their citizens across multiple dimensions. According to early analyses of the state of wellbeing and its components across EU member states, a general correlation exists between economic prosperity and wellbeing; however, exceptions also exist. It is notable that examples of decoupling of wellbeing from income exist as well. With renewed discussions about boosting the EU’s competitiveness, the SIWB dashboard can act as a critical monitoring tool to ensure sustainable and inclusive wellbeing — today and in the future. In MERGE, our work aligns with the JRC proposal and the EC initiative, and we are poised to move it forward through both policy and technical dialogues. 📑 Read more about the framework and the policy brief (links in the comment). Authors: Peter Benczur, Ana Boskovic, Enrico Giovannini, Andrea Pagano, Alina-Mihaela Sandor

Material Democracy -hankkeen blogisarja esittelee hankkeen tutkijoiden työtä ja avaa, miten hankkeen tutkimus voi edistää kestävyyssiirtymää. Sarjan ensimmäisessä osassa hankekonsortion johtaja, Aalto-yliopiston professori Sampsa Hyysalo tarkastelee osallisuutta kestävyysmurroksessa: mitä osallisuudella kestävyysmurroksessa oikeastaan tarkoitetaan ja miksi sen tutkiminen on tärkeää? "On paradoksi, että kestävyysmurroksessa on kyse laajasti vaikuttavasta ja pitkäkestoisesta ilmiöstä, mutta osittain juuri siksi osallisuus sen valmisteluun on jäänyt niukaksi ja rajoittunut suhteellisen pieneen osallistujajoukkoon." Lue blogi täältä: https://lnkd.in/gzg4Bv7F

What does it take to lead through transition — when the path is uncertain, and the stakes are high? 🧭 Together with UNDP in India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Centre for Leadership, Policy and Governance at Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi, we’re preparing a Just Transition capacity-building workshop for government leaders in Jharkhand, taking place this April. But what is a just transition? It’s about recognising that as societies move towards greener, more sustainable models, there will be tensions between long-term high-level goals and short-term local impacts. Transitions create opportunities, but also hardship. That’s why it’s essential to design them intentionally, so they lead to a fairer and more secure, stable and sustainable future for all. A just transition asks: 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒍 𝒇𝒖𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒐𝒓 𝒗𝒖𝒍𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅? In Jharkhand, this question isn’t abstract. The region is already experiencing shifts in employment, climate, and livelihoods, especially for tribal communities, women, informal workers and youth. This workshop will support policymakers to respond with care and clarity, exploring: ➡️ How climate change and economic transitions affect different groups ➡️ How to build local green and diverse economies through MSMEs ➡️ How to design inclusive policies that protect people and promote opportunities ➡️ How to design inclusive policies and processes that enable meaningful contributions from all those affected, particularly marginalised groups At Demos Helsinki, we believe transitions aren’t just technical challenges. They’re human and political — and must be approached with humility, imagination, and systems thinking. We’re proud to contribute to this work, not by bringing ready-made solutions, but by co-creating with those closest to the context. Because transitions are inevitable. Justice is not. It must be designed — intentionally, inclusively, and together. Thank you to our partners: UNDP in India, for leading with purpose; and Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi, for anchoring this work in deep local knowledge. We look forward to the journey ahead! #justtransition

Calls for deregulation and competitiveness are growing louder, often positioned in opposition to regulation and the democratic governance of AI. In this shifting political landscape, defining success in AI cannot be left to technological or economic efficiency metrics alone. We are grateful to be a part of this new Horizon Europe project that will try to define what "societally successful" AI is. The project aims to support all stakeholders in evaluating and addressing the future risks and opportunities of AI more effectively. Read more 👇

Europe cannot simply build its way out of the housing crisis. Years of following the conventional solution to “simply build more” have exposed cities to a housing crisis compounded by an ecological crisis. The current housing situation in Europe is not good: between 2010 and 2022, EU house prices increased by 47%, and rents increased by 18%. It is no wonder that the housing crisis is on the European Commission’s agenda, and more political pressure is building. But one of the main insights from our work on housing within planetary boundaries in Finland and the EU is that business-as-usual solutions prevail. There is insufficient integration of social and ecological imperatives into urban planning and policy. How can cities address housing justice while also averting ecological and biodiversity crises from worsening? There’s no silver bullet for the EU’s housing crisis — but without innovation and sufficiency driving the agenda, we’re just building on broken foundations.

❓Big questions are on the table – and the Creative Bureaucracy Festival is the place to tackle them. How do we modernise public institutions without losing sight of democracy? What kind of state do we need to meet today’s challenges? ❗ This June, we’ll explore answers together. With 4 stages & 4 workshop spaces as well as our new meetup area, the 2025 programme dives into themes like state reform, inclusive innovation, cultural transformation & smarter use of public funds. 🔎 Over 150 speakers from over 30 countries will share bold ideas, practical tools, and inspiring experiences. Today we’re offering a first glimpse at the programme of the 4 stages. 👀 Stay tuned for more updates coming soon! 🎯 IMPACT STAGE — Where Big Questions Meet Bold Ideas The programme spotlights global public sector innovation, exploring leadership, trust, digital transformation, gender equity, and reimagining bureaucracy as a democratic interface. With: Florian Hauser (European Commission), James Anderson (Government Innovation Lead, Bloomberg Philanthropies), Jon Alexander (CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us), Thomas de Maizière (former Federal Minister, Germany), PD - Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH, German Federal Ministry of Defence - Bundesministerium der Verteidigung, the SCEP MEGHALAYA & more. 🌐 CONNECTION STAGE — Where Collaboration Powers Change The programme frames public infrastructure as a cultural project, spotlighting local solutions and unlikely alliances to rethink fairness, inclusion, and the future of citizen engagement and institutions. With: Tatiana Fernandez, Maria Vitória Lima (Controladoria-Geral de Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Mod Foundation , UrbanizeHub, Goethe-Institut e.V., DigitalService, BunterBund, Start-up BW, Urban Stack & more. ⚙️ TRANSFORMATION STAGE — Modern Tools for Modern States The programme explores government as a community builder, covering inclusive innovation, smarter investment, tech regulation, and equity—from data labs and digital education to participatory foresight and invisible barriers. With: Erdem Ovacik, Chisom Udeze (Diversify), Tobias Temmen (wait, what.), Dominic Campbell & Mary Beth Goodman (Apolitical), representatives from INA Digital Edu, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung & more. 🎨 IMAGINATION STAGE — New Futures in the Making The stage fosters fresh perspectives through open, eye-level discussions on rethinking public institutions, navigating complexity, and driving urban and climate transformation with global innovation leaders. With: Edyta Ruta, Antonia Blau & Nico Degenkolb, Christian Bason, Ph.D. (Transition Collective), Isabella Gady (Demos Helsinki), Caio Werneck (TIAL (The Institutional Architecture Lab)), Hermann Hill (Deutsche Universität für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer), Umweltbundesamt & more. Don’t forget to get your festival ticket already 👉 https://lnkd.in/ezY7x2-e #CBF25 #CreativeBureaucracyFestival

What could the world beyond sustainability transformation's future look like — and how do we get there? 💡 Kestävyyspaneeli (The Finnish Expert Panel for Sustainable Development), in collaboration with Demos Helsinki, just published a new discussion entry exploring positive future visions of a society that has undergone a sustainability transformation. The publication can be found on the Expert panel’s website: https://lnkd.in/dWr87qPm 🔎 The review analyzed 150 publications — spanning academic scenarios, policy reports, and climate fiction literature — and found a surprising gap: most visions focus on technical fixes like clean energy and circular economy innovations, but overlook deeper societal shifts in our institutions, economies, and everyday life. To spark more ambitious thinking, we outlined three imaginative seeds for sustainable futures: 🧮 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐞-𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬 – Markets align with planetary boundaries through pricing that reflects environmental impacts. 🟢 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬 – A global decision-making system ensures the protection of Earth’s life-support systems. 🤝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 – Education reshapes values, norms, and collective action toward long-term resilience. These visions are just starting points — open-ended, provocative, and intentionally unfinished. This year, the Expert panel will engage citizens across Finland to co-develop these ideas further. ⬇️ Deep-dive materials can be found in the comments. 🌍 If we want a just, livable future, we first have to imagine it — together. What could a truly sustainable future look like, and how do we get there? Let us know what you think! #Sustainability #FuturesThinking #ClimateAction #SystemChange

What does security mean in an age of climate crisis? 🔓 In a world where geopolitical risks are intersecting with worsening climate impacts, we need a broader definition of security — one that protects not just military interests, but also the economic, civil, and ecological foundations of our resilience. We were delighted to co-host a sold-out panel discussion in March at RSA House with the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative to discuss these issues. Here are our four reflections from the event: 1️⃣ Climate security is complex, and common responses risk worsening rather than improving our security. Climate security is far more than the ability to conduct military operations under more chaotic conditions. It extends to the cascading shocks to our food, infrastructure and economic systems, which in turn risk undermining the basis of societal resilience and stability. However, even acknowledging this reality, traditional solutions can often exacerbate risks as much as reduce them. One panelist shared an example of food stockpiling strategies that rely on vast industrial agricultural monocrops — systems that are themselves hugely destructive to our climate and ecology. 2️⃣ Climate and geopolitics are inextricably linked. There is a risk of treating climate and geopolitics as distinct issue areas; however, they are increasingly inextricable. Some countries are already making plans to capitalise on the effects of climate breakdown to advance their own global strategic position, underscoring the essential need for a climate lens to feature in all serious geopolitical and geostrategic analysis. 3️⃣ We need to rethink risk. Most climate security discussions rely on flawed risk models that downplay catastrophic possibilities like tipping points. Events such as the collapse of the AMOC or SPG, though uncertain, are often dismissed as “low likelihood” despite their massive potential impact. Given that climate impacts are currently outpacing most mainstream models, we desperately need new frameworks and methods to address high-uncertainty, high-impact risks and avoid being blindsided by extreme disruptions. 4️⃣ Finland’s approach isn’t perfect, but it can provide lessons to build on. Finland shares the climate blind spots common in national security strategies, but its more integrated Comprehensive Security Model offers a strong foundation for addressing cascading climate risks. As the new climate reality demands rapid learning and global collaboration, Finland appears well-positioned to lead in shaping the climate security agenda. 🤝 Thanks to our wonderful speakers: Jessica Seddon, Olivia Lazard, and Laurie Laybourn, along with our own Juha Leppänen and Theo Cox as moderator. A live recording of the event will be shared soon, along with the discussion paper prepared for the event. If you’re working or interested in areas related to climate security, don’t hesitate to reach out to our colleague Theo Cox!

You still have two more days to apply for our internship programme! If you are interested in steering positive societal change and tackling contemporary challenges, we invite you to have a look at our internship position and apply by 13 April 📝