Visioning and societal transformations

Guidelines and inspirations

In 2024 PBL started a new research program on the role of government in societal transformations to sustainability. A key role in such transformations is played by visions and processes of visioning. To contribute to PBL’s ‘futures literacy’ the Copernicus Institute at Utrecht University has developed a state-of-the-art literature review on transformative visioning. The resulting publication aims to help researchers and others to think about how imagining the future can lead to societal change.

The publication consists of three parts. Part 1 provides a core set of guiding considerations, setting out what to think about when conducting anything that involves visioning the future. Part 2 goes into more detail for each of these guidelines, based on relevant literature and reflection from existing cases. Part 3 offers additional inspirational background materials. The full publication can be found on the Utrecht University website via the link on this page.