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.

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    • Mysterious metaphors of “art–science”

      Opinion
      Art-science collaborations are on the rise everywhere. Yet, what these relations constitute in practice is less clear. The very term “art-science” is itself limiting. Many collaborations seek to go beyond this simple binary, exploring the potential that exists at the intersection of artistic and research practices.

    • Sustainable Belonging in a Migratory World

      Opinion
      From most people’s gut perspective, belonging is rooted in a kind of from-ness. Like a tree, you are rooted in a place. Though it’s not easily admitted in liberal society, one’s rootedness is usually detected by skin colour and facial features. Even amongst the most welcoming of insiders, there is an unspoken assumption that those here first get to decide how things ought to be. On a secondary level, cultural behaviour confers belonging. “Okay, their grandparents aren’t from here, but at least they get our way of life.”​​​​​​​ But what is this “our” anyway?​​​​​​​

    • Around the future in eighty worlds

      Opinion
      Throughout history, people have tried to give shape to the future. This piece offers no comprehensive tour of this history. Yet it does share some glimpses of how we might see the future in different ways, or rather different worlds. Here we begin our journey around the future in eighty worlds, even if we visit just a few for now…

    • Thinking from the north

      Opinion
      I just returned from a train trip up north with my partner and two-year-old daughter. Specifically, to Kiruna and Abisko in Sweden. Partly, I wanted to meet one of Europe’s peripheries and, in so doing, better understand its centres. Most of all, I hoped to engage with the Sami, the EU’s only recognised indigenous group. I was sorely disappointed.

    • Turning the classroom into a social movement?

      Background
      Between November 2023 and January 2024, the Urban Futures Studio turned its’ annual Mixed Classroom into a fictive social movement. What can we learn from this experiment?
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