Futures Seminar #10: Democratising the Future

Watch the recording of our seminar from UNESCO World Futures Day for a discussion on how to democratise the future, and why it is important.

Futures Seminar #10: Democratising the Future
December 02, 2022
15.00 - 16.00
YouTube Livestream / Arena at BLOXHUB, Bryghusgade 8, Copenhagen (hybrid)

How do we build inclusive visions of the future? On UNESCO World Futures Day the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies held a discussion on how to democratise the future, and why it is important. 

We explored how democracy can be developed to overcome the challenges of inclusion and communication that are becoming increasingly evident. During our event, we discussed ways in which democracy can be developed to address the many challenges we currently face and to enable more communities to be heard.  

Democratising the future calls for a particular focus on how to involve younger (and perhaps even future) generations. Short-term planning and decisions create suboptimal and unsustainable solutions in many parts of society. This is the case in politics, where the four-year electoral cycle largely dominates thinking, while regulation almost always lags behind technological development and innovation. However, it is also true in business, where there is a wide-spread tendency for management and employees to drift apart, communication deterioration, and for some employees to not feel like they have a stake in the successes and failures of the company. 

Questions we explored:

  • How do we develop a culture that takes those without the right to vote into account?
  • How can businesses incorporate some of the values that younger generations will demand from the workplaces of the future? 
  • Which solutions can address these challenges that democracy faces?