In the history of man maps have been of great importance. Maps provide an essential tool for navigating and interpreting unknown landscapes and getting where you want to go. By using a map we can plan the most effective route from A to B, and when we get lost we can find landmarks to regain our sense of place and direction. A map gives us the ability to navigate uncertainty with confidence.
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PARALLEL PERSPECTIVES
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What to look out for?
Planetary Boundaries |
World Economic Forum |
Facebook’s Global Community |
Sustainable Development Goals |
In 2009 researchers identified nine planetary boundaries for sustained human activity on the planet. |
Each year world leaders meet in Davos to address the world’s major challenges. |
In a 6000 word manifesto Marc Zuckerberg commits Facebook to influence World challenges. |
In 2015 all countries in the UN general assembly committed to the 17 SDG to transform our world. |
Look here to get a broader perspective on human impact on the planet. |
Look here to learn what is on the global agenda. |
Look out for Mark Zuckerberg as he has large influence on the World’s biggest social media platform. |
Look here to find inspiration and a global community of action. |
SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMIC SOLUTIONS
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What to look out for?
Manhattan Dry Line |
Mondragon Worker Cooperative |
SROI (Social Return on Investment) |
Student/Nursery Home |
This architecture project proposes social infrastructure to prevent flooding and support city living. |
The major cooperative is owned by its workers and democratically governed. |
SROI measures extra-financial value to evaluate impact on stakeholders and measure what really matters. |
Nursery homes invites students to move in to combat loneliness and create affordable housing. |
Look here for an example of systemic design of the city. |
Look here for large scale collaborative business practices. |
Look for measuring broader societal impact. |
Look here to synergy between challenges of different stakeholders. |
TRUST IN TECHNOLOGY TAKEOVER
The technology takeover removes the need for trust in people and transfers it to technology Terms like automation, 3D printing and Industry 4.0 are all expressions of a job market and society in rapid change. Increasingly machines become more than efficient production-partners in both physical and computational processes. With Facebook’s algorithms filtering our information streams and blockchain showing promise to replace core parts of our financial system, we see the advent of digital entities that are more or less autonomous or independent of human influence. Traditionally value transaction processes involve a bank as a middleman, but using Blockchain removes the need of a human controlled institutions to support its legitimacy. As a result we need to trust a set of algorithms and their incorruptibility instead of the cashiers and shareholders of the bank. In their superiority regarding reliability and efficiency these digital entities outcompete human institutions with core societal functions. By default we must learn to trust algorithms to filter our news and track our value transactions or become a part of a small minority of people with the data processing skills and resources needed for analysing the quality of these services. People in the former group must look to recommendations on peer-to-peer networks or to organisations like the Fairtrade Foundation to assess the value of information, products and services. Reflective Question How can we effectively build, trust and create value for humans in a mixed digital and physical reality? |
What to look out for?
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SIMPLE JOYS
Simple joys are the foundation for social innovation creating genuine value In its essence, social innovation is about making people happy and creating well-being for yourself and others. As change makers, we often over-complicate things in an effort to achieve societal impact, in effect forgetting about what creates value for the individual in the present moment. Additionally, we buy new toys and experiences to satisfy our needs which often comes at a cost of extracting natural resources for travelling to distant locations or to give us new technology for entertaining our spare hours. But simple joys are about finding the joys inside you rather than outside. We can spend the rest of our lives looking for external joys, but it is a waste of time as long as we do not start with ourselves and what really matters: laughing, crying, relaxing, helping others, playing, reflecting, and enjoying the moment. In this way designing and creating joyful experiences are essential to social innovation in being both the ultimate end and the foundation for its success. Reflective Question How can creating well-being from within help societies become more sustainable? |
What to look out for?
Yoga and Meditation |
Institute of Play |
#Selfieless |
Autotelic Activities |
Yoga and meditation seek to create joy from within instead of depending on external factors. |
The institute uses play and games as an entry to better education. Play is critical to learning. |
This campaign urges people to turn their smartphone cameras to acts of kindness instead of selfies. |
Activities that carry their full purpose in their exercise, not as means to an end. |
Look here for practices for inner well-being. |
Look here for an approach to combine playful processes with hard skills. |
Look here for how a change in perspective creates joy. |
Look here to learn theories about joyful experience. |
POSSIBILITY OF WASTE AND FRUGALITY
Waste is just a resource produced in the wrong context and frugality is an opportunity for innovation One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, the saying goes. We increasingly see the realisation of the saying as waste is being redefined as a valuable resource and cheap cardboard innovations solve challenges for billions. On AirBnB vacant time in our homes is being redefined as room for explorers, Adidas recycle plastic bottles as textiles for new sneakers, and cheap cardboard solutions are replacing advanced medical devices in rural India. Yesterday, resources were extracted to create a product that ends its days as waste. In Tomorrow’s Land the linear extraction economy withers and an innovative network of resource reuse and refinement emerges. Ingenious people and organisations find ways to expand the traditional possibility of products, resources, services and waste by redefining their application. In Tomorrow’s Land resource scarcity is seen as a possibility for finding cheap alternatives and resource abundance is redefined as a possibility for sustainable redistribution. In Tomorrow’s Land social innovators finds more treasures where others find trash. Reflective How can we reformulate scarcity and abundance as possibilities for social innovation? |
What to look out for?
Frugal Innovation |
AirBnB and Spare Spaces |
Ugly Fruit |
Building for the Next Billion |
Bioengineer from Stanford designs $2 centrifuge of cardboard for diagnosis of malaria and HIV |
The home sharing site makes vacant homes available thereby redistributing wasted resources. |
Fruta Feia distributes ugly fruit rejected in commercial value chains for profit and the world. |
Serving the next billion internet users forces Google to use limitations as possibilities |
Look here for example creating something out of nothing. |
Look here for redistribution of resources at a high definition. |
Look here designing solutions for wasted resources. |
Look here for overcoming challenges with innovation. |
THE GLOCAL PARADOX
The co-existence of globalist and localist mindsets creates a polarised multicultural world In our connected world, a globalising movement seeks global unity at the same time as a localising movement seeks to preserve the uniqueness and division between cultures, nation states and languages. The coexistence of these movements create a polarisation of the public discourse and a shift into a glocalised world. This glocal paradox gives rise to conflicts as globalists increasingly connect through shared interests, while place-bound localists create communities anchored in the local geography. The glocal paradox is the tension between the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and “America First” mindset, between interculturalism, assimilation and segregation, and the tension between the progressive left and nationalist right. A more inclusive and innovative Tomorrow requires social innovators to integrate global and local perspectives to create durable and desirable solutions. Initiatives that manage to bridge the polarity will induce tolerance and unite people around common challenges. Reflective Question How we can unite polarised global and local perspectives into sustainable global and local solutions? |
What to look out for?
Samsoe Energy Academy |
Chinese globalism |
European Nationalism |
Democracy i Europe Movement |
Engaging an island community in local activities aimed at both local and global issues. |
In 2017 Xi Jinpeng assures China’s commitment to the global market despite protectionism in the West. |
Right wing parties across Europe wants to leave the EU and regain national independence. |
Green/leftist, pan-European movement seeks to redesign European collaboration. |
Look here to see a local community pioneering renewable energy. |
Look here for future leadership of global trade. |
Look here to learn about cultural differences and localist issues. |
Look here for innovation of pan-european, political collaboration. |
RESHUFFLED RESPONSIBILITY
Communities and informal organisations take responsibility to write a new social contract Faced with declining service levels, downscaling and outsourcing, innovative communities take on the responsibility to question and rewrite the existing social contract. Informal organisations are formed out of dissatisfaction and what emerges are community based solutions that care for the sick and the elderly, educate children and secure fast internet access or renewable energy supply. These organisations outcompete commercial innovations on the engagement of citizens and are driven by a new sense of belonging and feeling of ownership. The rise of a global job market on digital platforms, an ageing population, urbanisation and automation are major challenges to the social contract. It is up to social innovators and pioneer communities to take on the responsibility to meet these challenges with novel solutions that work in a glocal and connected world. Reflective Question How can social innovators engage communities in taking responsibility and rewrite the social contract towards a better tomorrow? |
What to look out for?
Malaga Común Local Currency |
B4RN Rural Broadband |
ManaBalss Public Initiatives |
British Community Hospitals |
Local Exchange Trade Systems engages the local community and rewrites the social contract |
Broadband infrastructure created by non-profit, community driven effort in rural NW England. |
Platform involves citizens in the democratic process and reforms the political process. |
Hospitals become social enterprises as austerity and population growth pressures NHS. |
Look here for new ways of communal trading and economy. |
Look here for innovation of infrastructure construction. |
Look here for redesigning democratic participation |
Look here for community initiatives that change culture. |
DIGITAL DARWINISM
The digital society creates opportunities for influence and establishes a new social hierarchy Digital darwinism is the emergence of a social order where new forms of capital decide who can influence the world. In the land of Yesterday, the power of influence was mostly determined by formal political power, accumulated capital or support from resourceful organisations. In Tomorrow’s Land, a random viral video and social media followers are added to this list making the influence landscape more volatile and accessible. A new video shared by a top youtuber or a single well-formulated tweet can move policies, money or masses - and anyone can do it. But anyone is not everyone. The new social structure does not equal an egalitarian utopia it merely redistributes influence to people who are able to successfully manage this new, digital capital. One of our neighbours might dominate next week’s political debate with a video getting 1 million views on Youtube while another might be a low paid clickworker on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Digital Darwinism is the emergence of a new order of influence and skills in the digital world – it is a power structure where digital natives live next to digital immigrants and SoMe influencers work side by side with Clickworkers. Reflective Question How can social innovators use digital tools to empower all rather than only a new digital upper class? |
What to look out for?
Online Influencers |
Clickwork at Amazon Turk |
Acxiom Digital Worth |
Zero Marginal Cost Society |
Online influencers like Casey Neistat harness the power of the web to move policy and consumers. |
Clickworkers earn cents for online task effectively creating a digital subclass in the global society. |
Acxiom quantifies our digital value and categorises people as waste or gold to advertisers. |
Digital services dominate competitors by decreasing the marginal costs and agile development. |
Look here the digital upperclass. |
Look here for the new subclass of the digital age |
Look here for evaluation of online influence. |
Look here for understanding the digital market. |
Learning to understand and engage with Tomorrow’s Land is a crucial capacity for being a social innovator. Through the creative research process partners in the Tomorrow’s Land project have mapped certain areas of interest in Tomorrow’s Land. An important characteristic of the map and its eight insights is that it is not exhaustive of what challenges and opportunities young adults will meet in the future.
We sincerely hope that young adults will engage with the project and simultaneously explore and co-create more parts of Tomorrow’s Land. Therefore, we offer you this map of Tomorrow’s Land to help young adults navigate themselves, their project and the world to design a more flourishing, inclusive and innovative future. |
EXPLORE TOMORROW’S LAND
When reading maps one must always be aware that the map is not the same as the territory. In this way the following insights are not attempts to predict the future or give a full description of it, it is merely the naming and description of certain areas and what possibility lies within them. Like all maps this map does not depict all the elements of the landscape and some elements might even have changed because of social, economic or environmental factors. Other people and organisations have produced different maps and the social innovators of the future should investigate widely to make finer distinctions that might help their project succeed. In addition to naming and describing the areas of Tomorrow’s Land a few signals are mentioned, because they powerfully illustrate elements of the area – they are the landmarks of their area. If you as a social innovator get lost or want inspiration for where to go with your project, we invite you to ask yourself a reflective question.
We invite young adults to let the following insights induce wonder, curiosity and future thinking to guide your journey and support your ideas for a better future. We believe that the future is up for grabs for those courageous souls that take on a responsibility to solve our collective challenges. We believe that when everything is uncertain everything is possible, and by jumping head first into uncertainty, anyone can be the creator of Tomorrow's Land.
We invite young adults to let the following insights induce wonder, curiosity and future thinking to guide your journey and support your ideas for a better future. We believe that the future is up for grabs for those courageous souls that take on a responsibility to solve our collective challenges. We believe that when everything is uncertain everything is possible, and by jumping head first into uncertainty, anyone can be the creator of Tomorrow's Land.