Future Dialogue in Västra Götaland

Future Dialogue in Västra Götaland is a collaborative project aimed at strengthening Region Västra Götaland’s capacity to work strategically, in a coordinated manner and on a knowledge-based foundation with long-term future-oriented issues. The project is based on the need to better manage uncertainty, complex societal challenges and transition through shared images of the future, dialogue and foresight.

Västra Götaland has many future-oriented objectives, particularly in relation to climate, the environment, mobility and regional development. At the same time, these objectives can be understood and translated into practice in different ways depending on place, target group and area of society. The project therefore does not focus on developing new visions or objectives, but on exploring what existing ones may mean in practice and how they can be used as a basis for shared learning, strategic choices and long-term planning.

Through several future dialogues in different parts of the region, digital seminars and joint analysis, the project develops and tests methods for dialogue, scenarios and foresight. The future dialogues are workshop-based meeting formats in which actors from the public sector, academia, culture, civil society, business and industry, and residents jointly explore and give concrete form to possible futures, including their conflicts of objectives, synergies and needs for change.

The project is carried out by Region Västra Götaland (VGR), RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, HDK-Valand at the University of Gothenburg, and the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). Together, the partners combine expertise in regional development, foresight, mobility, spatial planning, artistic methods and design-based approaches.

The aim is for the project, by making images of the future more concrete, to contribute to increased regional capacity for foresight, strengthened dialogue between actors, and a more practically useful toolbox for regional planning and governance. The results will be compiled in the form of lessons learned, methods and recommendations that can be used in continued regional development work.

The project participants from each organisation are:

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden: Daniel Bengtsson & Hilma Andersson

Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI): Jacob Witzell, Karolina Isaksson & Claus Hedegaard Sørensen

HDK-Valand at the University of Gothenburg: Helena Kraff, Britta Teleman & Gloria López Cleries

Region Västra Götaland (VGR): Aako Raoofi, Sara Eriksson & Line de Verdier