FUTURES OF EUROPE
Design: Alexis Faria
Futures of Europe is an open-ended, multidisciplinary project that aims to encourage discussion and engagement and to create new visions around possible futures of Europe. Faith in politics is at an all-time low, and hope for the future is collapsing as conspiracy theories and dystopian visions flourish. To counterbalance these trends, our actions tackle themes like sustainability, climate action, countering extremism, the need for unity, action against racism, and finding positive, empowering uses of digitalisation, with the broader aim of helping to rebuild the commons in Europe and encourage consensus on some of the most difficult issues we face. We want people to see that their words and ideas matter, that they have something of value to contribute to crucial debates, and that everyone living in Europe - north, south, east or west, centre or periphery, rural or urban - has an important role to play in deciding our collective fate.
WHAT WE DO
We are currently testing a variety of new tools, games and workshop methods. It is important to us to reach new audiences: not only students, academics and urban professionals, but also (for example) school children with an interest in imaginative games and drawing, newly arrived immigrants with a stake in Europe’s future, workers fed up with the status quo, or older citizens with the wisdom of experience to share. Futures are for everyone.
Our long-term vision with Futures of Europe is to engage Europeans, broadly defined, and anyone living in Europe in talking openly about values, beliefs, anxieties and concerns in a creative and positive space, away from private chat groups and outside of filter bubbles. We want to support the growth of a new commons in Europe and encourage consensus-building on some of the tough issues we face, while at the same time allowing for the healthy divergence of views and productive friction within a respectful public setting. Collaborative manifesto writing, for example, provides citizens with a soapbox and a megaphone — the chance to reflect on our value systems, where they clash and where they meet — the chance to challenge, but also to unite.