#OurFutures

Democracy across Europe has experienced immense challenge, change and uncertainty in recent years (Canal 2014; European Commission & Merkel; 2019) - from the rise of populism to decreasing levels of public trust in governance institutions and processes, to the war in Ukraine. Set against the backdrop of these issues, EUARENAS has been investigating how cities and urban spaces can strengthen legitimacy, identification and engagement within the democratic public sphere. Specifically, EUARENAS has been exploring how participation and deliberation in democracy and decision-making can be increased, and how voices and communities who are excluded from such arenas can be more actively involved. Foresight is one of the research strands present in EUARENAS. In this project, foresight is both a tool for understanding democratic innovations as they emerge, and for engaging citizens and other actors in such innovations within the participatory and deliberative realms. Mixed method approaches to foresight that incorporate a diversity of activities such as media discourse analysis, lived experience storytelling, social media analysis, three horizons mapping, driver-mapping, scenario and visioning exercises and policy stress- testing have been used in EUARENAS to investigate and hypothesise over future trends and scenarios in participatory democracies. From this work, we propose the following recommendations for Cities wanting to strive towards more equitable local democracies:Address structural barriers to participation Build relationships of trustInvest in formal and civic educationMake decisions for the long-termA more equitable, inclusive local democracy landscape is not too far in the distance for us to conceive it being possible. In fact, the future is now – the seeds to create it are already being planted, they just need nurturing by:Scaling and mainstreaming existing pilot or niche practices that are working locally – whether that beparticipatory budgeting, citizen assemblies or other smaller-scale projects – so that these become thenew ‘status quo’Adopting test and learn approaches to promote experimentation and on-going learning – this will enableongoing innovation and be responsive to society's needsFinding ways to celebrate and connect-up the small changes that are taking place - this will help peoplesee that progress is being made, even when it feels like things are changing too slow

#OurFutures is a collection of stories, by citizens of Europe, indicating their desirable futures. Share your storyWe love to hear what you think. You can write more than one short story if you feel strongly about more than one issue. Available in all EU languages. You want to share your story as well? Go to bit.ly/our_futures   WhyThe aim of this collection is to support the discussion around visions for Europe, what do you want the future of Europe to look like? Which stories can we imagine together. All current stories can be found at futures4europe.eu/stories. And do you want to understand what these stories tell us, check out the open database behind the stories. The hopes and worries will be shared with (EU) policy makers, to help (re)direct their ideas and policy actions. The #OurFutures project is set up by the European Commission (Policy Lab: foresight, design & behavioral insights of the Joint Research Centre).ResultsCheck out our dashboard to learn about https://ourfutures.dashboard.voicesthatcount.net/  More in-depth analysishttps://policy-lab.ec.europa.eu/news/future-europe-what-do-you-imagine-it-will-look-2023-05-09_enhttps://policy-lab.ec.europa.eu/news/future-europe-futures-imagined-greek-citizens-2023-05-15_en