The TransScale project has published a new working paper titled “Exploring Urban Futures of Reuse, Sharing and Repair – Cross-cutting Insights from Futures Literacy Laboratories in Norway, Poland, Denmark and Latvia.”
The report presents findings from four Futures Literacy Laboratories (FLLs) organised across Europe as part of the TransScale project. Conducted between May and September 2025, the laboratories brought together participants from municipalities, academia, NGOs, businesses, and community organisations to collectively imagine and discuss sustainable urban futures.
The publication examines how Futures Literacy approaches can support transformative change towards circular and sharing economies. Futures Literacy Laboratories are participatory workshops designed to help participants challenge assumptions about the future, rethink current practices, and explore alternative pathways for sustainability transitions.
The four national laboratories focused on different themes connected to reuse, sharing and repair:
- Poland – food and food systems;
- Norway – reuse with a focus on building materials;
- Latvia – circular and sharing economy practices;
- Denmark – product lifetime, repair and durability.
Across all countries, participants envisioned futures that are both environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. Common themes included reducing waste, strengthening community-based sharing and repair practices, and creating economic systems less dependent on continuous growth. Trust, collaboration, and local engagement emerged as central elements in these future visions.
At the same time, the report identifies major barriers to transformation, including political inertia, fragmented regulation, corporate power, and geopolitical instability. Participants highlighted that meaningful systemic change often requires strong societal pressure, crises, or new political coalitions to accelerate transitions toward sustainability.
The report also reflects on the methodological value of Futures Literacy Laboratories as tools for participatory learning, imagination, and sustainability governance. The broader ambition of the laboratories was to move beyond incremental problem-solving and stimulate deeper reflection on how alternative urban futures can be created collectively.
The publication was prepared by researchers from NIFU, Aalborg University, Adam Mickiewicz University, and the University of Latvia within the Horizon Europe funded TransScale project.
📄 Read the full report here:https://nva.sikt.no/registration/019daff313f3-1b7f1fa1-55e8-4c48-9a96-14085880803c