Working with the social transition at DDC – Danish Design Center, I find it particularly inspiring to dive into specific groups of human beings and the lives we want to impact. Therefore, I am happy to share with you some recommendations to dive into the lifeworlds of two different groups of people we are currently working with: creating an alternative future for elderly care and creating a shared vision for a thriving youth.

1. Visit our Future Archive

   During our project New Days, we worked with four municipalities and one region to create alternative perspectives on the future of aging and care. Besides the immersive future scenarios, we developed a toolkit with guides, materials, visual tools, and a collection of ‘speculative fragments’ from the future. We’ve built these fragments as physical artifacts. Now, you get to see a group of them at Design Museum Denmark as part of their exhibition ‘The Future is Present’. Bring along your friends and colleagues for an exploration of our Future Archive and get acquainted with the Caregel, the Mealpill, JustEnd, Headspace, and Snailrabbit. The museum reopens on June 19. Read more on their website.

2. Debates: How does the future of aging look?

   If you’re joining us at this year’s Folkemøde on Bornholm on June 16-19, come to the Policy Lab we’re hosting with our partners Mandag Morgen and Danish Life Science Cluster. The Policy Lab consists of three heats of debate sessions zooming in on some of the themes and dilemmas we worked with in creating alternative futures for aging and care. With an offset in our provoking future fragments, we dive into discussions on:

   • Concerns and challenges of the current generations when imagining our future senior life

   • The future for our welfare and healthcare system in Denmark as more people live longer with diagnoses and expenses are on the rise

   • How welfare technology can be part of the solution in creating a balance between human and digital solutions to our current challenges

    

   It’s all happening on June 18 at 12.30 PM. Read more about the attendants and the debates here. 

3. Podcast: How do we transition from childhood to adulthood?

   Switching the focus to the younger part of our generation, I want to recommend a podcast. After listening to this episode, one particular perspective stuck with me. It’s the question of rituals (or the lack thereof) and their role in young people’s lives. Do we have shared practices supporting the transition from child to young adult, or are young people left to understand and create meaning on their own?

   In the episode ‘Tidsånd – Ondt i livet’ (Pain in life), anthropologist Inger Sjørslev and youth pastor Therese Møller explore rituals to set a necessary framework in life and deal with the familiar feeling of lacking meaning. The reflections are incredibly relevant to me due to our newly launched initiative “Imagine If We…” in collaboration with the ROCKWOOL Foundation’s Intervention Unit. We work to create a shared vision for a future of young people thriving mentally.
   
   Listen to the podcast (in Danish) here.

4. Article: Is happiness a choice?

   Is happiness a choice? Another intriguing perspective to consider, when dealing with the well-being of young people is the ideals we all strive to live up to. In this Zetland article, journalist Nanna Schelde explores teacher Christian Hjortkjær’s view on our society’s transformation from earlier having many rules to now having many ideals. Christian argues that as a society, we are far more ideal-oriented today, and this poses a challenge as young people feel like they cannot live up to those ideals – because ideals are inherently not meant to be reached.

   What I like about this exploration of norms and values is to consider where the ideals come from, become aware of their existence, and consider what to do about them. How do we rebel against ideals? How do we protest something that we are all part of creating? What kind of activism is needed? Let me know what you think and read the article here.