The Council of the Future: a citizen assembly workshop for sustainability

A strategic foresight methodology and tool empowering citizens to imagine the future for future generations to thrive and life to flourish. Designed as a citizen assembly role play, the workshop draws on intergenerational and collective intelligence principles.

‘The Council of the Future’ is a workshop methodology empowering citizens to imagine the future for future generations to thrive and life to flourish. Designed as a citizen assembly role play, the workshop draws on intergenerational and collective intelligence principles.

Participants are invited to step into the reality of their great-grandchildren, adopting a forward-thinking approach.

The methodology supports them to understand current issues while imagining a prosperous future in 2060, and create an action plan to make their collective vision a reality.

1. EXPLORATION PHASE

The Council of the Future is taking place, with all the participants reunited. They begin the activity by listing the main risks related to today’s challenge.

Question linked to the challenge: ‘What are the risks and why should we act accordingly?’.

Time frame: We are in the present.

2. IMAGINATION PHASE

The participants step into the life of their great-grandchildren (i.e. two generations or their grandchildren's point of view). They will now imagine the ideal world to bequeath to future generations so that they can thrive and live prosperously.

Question related to the issue: ‘What kind of world do we want our great-grandchildren to inherit?’

Temporality: We are in 2060, imagining the world in which the next generations will be born.

3. PLANNING PHASE

Participants will have to put in place a strategy with key recommendations to make the link between the issues of the present (exploration phase) and the world they want to leave to future generations by 2060 (imagination phase).

Question related to the issue: ‘How can we meet the challenges of today to achieve the world we want to see in 2060?’

Timeframe: We are in the present.

Discover the full methodology by downloading the toolkit for free.

Download the workshop methodology (PDF)