The Urban Futures Studio explores sustainable and meaningfully democratic futures, and ways to get there. We investigate what we call ‘futuring’ - the social creation of the (imagined) futures that direct collective action. As a transdisciplinary institute, we collaborate with policymakers, activists, artists, and students to enable alternative futures.

Visit the Urban Futures Studio at Princetonlaan 8a, Utrecht  (room 1.02)

    • Futures of Palestine: Imagining Justice

      News
      Personal experiences and academic insights alternated during the 'Palestine Futures' meeting on April 7, 2024.

    • The Utopia*Art*Politics Collection

      Opinion
      The concept of utopia has a dark colonial past that lives on through overgrown dreams that leave little space for other possible futures. The Utopia*Art*Politics Collection explores the alternative potential of utopia—not as an elite blueprint of predefined ends—but as a radically collective method for justice.

    • The perils of foretelling the future

      Opinion
      Lacking visions of better possible futures, many have been drawn towards imagining rosy stolen pasts. Yet, we are not witnessing an isolated disease of the imagination in the form of populist nostalgia. There is a broader dynamic at play—namely, the projection of certainty into the future in ways that diminish our collective ability to remake the present. This wider disease of the imagination extends beyond populist nostalgia and includes several strains with divergent political roots.

    • Exhibition on geoengineering inspired by Utrecht University research

      News
      The exhibition Design for the Planet, partially inspired by research by Jeroen Oomen offers a groundbreaking exploration of the design and history behind geoengineering.

    • Environmentalists must embrace the drama of belonging

      Opinion
      In the summer of 2022, 100 Dutch farmers parked their tractors outside of the Asylum Seekers’ Centre in Ter Apel, on the Netherlands’ north-eastern border with Germany to protest that they “no longer feel welcome” in the Netherlands. With right-ring populists being elected across the world, the action offers lessons that progressive environmentalists sorely need to hear.
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    • 3 Jun

      Captured Futures

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      On June 3rd, Maarten Hajer and Jeroen Oomen present their new book 'Captured Futures - Rethinking the Drama of Environmental Politics' at Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam. Entrance is free.
    • 5 Jun

      Seeds of Better Futures

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      Utrecht University and the Social Impact Factory are organizing the Seeds Festival, an evening of exchange and inspiration in the SIF building where ‘seeds’, radical sustainability experiments and initiatives, will be presented by practitioners and students alike.
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