This deliverable (D) 1.3 summarizes the research findings from the project Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) and documents the research process undertaken during the project’s duration. Building on theoretical, conceptual, and methodological frameworks developed in work package (WP)1, research facilitated an analysis of citizen participation in place-based policymaking oriented towards just sustainability transitions in WP2 and 3, as well as the experimental testing of participatory instruments in living labs, referred to as Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs), in this context in WP4 and 5. Intermediate steps of synthesis ensured that the scope, depth, and determining factors of citizen participation that were identified during the early analytical WPs were targeted in the later experimental WPs. Against this background the main research findings that are presented in chapters of this report can be read as a consecutive elaboration of the projects’ main question: How can the delivery of place-based policies for just sustainability transitions enhance citizen participation and trust in democratic governance, especially among least-engaged communities (LECs)? ... Read more

This deliverable D6.3 Academic dissemination plan sets out a strategy for disseminating research results from the project Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) among an academic audience and via scientific publications. In the DUST Grant Agreement (GA) key project indicators (KPIs) have been defined for observing this dissemination. These indicators include 16 open access research papers, of which at least ten are published in leading academic journals with an Altmetric score of at least 20 and >500 views one month after publication, and one open access edited book covering the project’s scientific advances, with 1000 online reads within a year after publication.

Since the project started in February 2023 researchers at the DUST partner organisations have been working towards realizing these KPI’s. This deliverable therefore firstly presents achievements in terms of scientific publications so far, including already published journal articles, submitted journal articles, conference papers and presentations, as well as publication ideas that were launched by groups of researchers during related DUST project meetings. Drawing on these ongoing publication work as well as an intended comprehensive coverage of results from the different research activities in work packages (WPs) and tasks (Ts), the deliverable secondly identifies upcoming work to be done. This is presented in the form of agreed-upon lists of future publications. In conjunction these lists form the core of this final version of the DUST Academic dissemination plan.

Lastly, the deliverable presents guidelines for publication activities to guarantee reliability, honesty, respect, accountability, and inclusivity in the making use of the empirical data and knowledge that has been gathered during the project. A credit taxonomy is introduced as a specific instrument for determining co-authorship. Open science and acknowledgement practices as well as steps in bringing academic writing to publication are outlined. The realization of KPIs for academic dissemination largely falls outside of the duration of the DUST project. The plan therefore also introduces agreements that govern this post-project process. ... Read more

E-democracy refers to the use of electronic communication technologies, such as the internet and social media, to facilitate democratic processes and engagement. Participatory digital tools can in this context support decisions by mediating large scale collaboration among various stakeholders, through the exchange of data, endorsement, and opinion. The e-democracy tool Pol.is is an open-source consensus-oriented deliberative decision-making software for addressing controversial issues within potentially large groups of social media users. The tool is designed to address diverse types of publics and is oriented at second-order decisions on the exchange and synthesis of opinion. The tool enables consent formation at scale in situations where there is a low level of trust in pre-existing social networks. Pol.is enables low-cost participation in such a context via a series of embedded strategies and rules that reduce participants’ burden of decision and counteract flaming (provocative responses to posts). The tool is designed to inform agenda-setting by promoting organisation. It uses predefined ‘seed statements’ (SS) as input for the identification of clusters of consent (and dis-consent) around these policy statements. It allows people to first add nuanced comments on these prompts. Conversation then proceeds with ordering added comments around algorithmically structured themes which are then used to build a matrix that organizes comments around themes quantitatively.

​The DUST experiments, which were run under the header Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs), tested the e-democracy tool Pol.is as part of a hybrid format combining digital and analogous design-led territorial participation instruments. The aim of testing was to increase our understanding of the complementarities between digital and analogue forms of participation, and of how these complementarities can be enhanced to increase the strategic positioning of communities’ interests in multi-level policymaking and democratic life at scale.

​Between January and May 2025, DUST partners in the four RFLL case studies of Norrbotten (Sweden), Katowice (Poland), Lusatia (Germany), and Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) engaged with the Pol.is application during three stages. During the first preparation phase, the TUD Pol.is team educated RFLL case study partners on the use of the software, supported them in the preparation of input – the SSs, as well as opening statements and pages - for the application, and guided them in the preparation and first steps of a case-study-region-wide campaign to attract Pol.is users. In addition, the TUD Pol.is team prepared the application for use in technical terms (the application was hosted at TU Delft for data privacy and security reasons). During the second implementation phase, the collaboratively prepared seed statements (output of the third RFLL workshop) were set out in case study regions for digital deliberation. Case study partners monitored reactions to these statements, moderated deliberations if necessary, and further implemented the Pol.is information campaign. During the final assessment phase, the case study partners carried out a first quantitative assessment of Pol.is results in each case study region. Results of this assessment fed into a policy co-creation process in the RFLL WS 4. The data collection, which is presented in this deliverable, will finally feed into a comparative assessment of results per case study region, and an evaluation of Pol.is on its complementarity with other participatory RFLL tools and activities. ... Read more

The Task (T) 4.3 Regional design is part of the DUST work package (WP) 4 ‘Setting the stage for participation: Mapping, visualization, and digitalization’, which supports the participatory experiments with citizens, policymakers, and experts in the DUST Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs) in WP5. The RFLLs combine design-led territorial and digital instruments for more proactive and strategic involvement of least-engaged communities (LECs) in multi-level sustainability transition policymaking. The regional designs, which are the key output of T4.3, exemplify a design-led territorial approach. Presented in a series of visual representations and storylines, their purpose is two-fold: firstly, they represent and compare community and policy perspectives on sustainability transition policymaking in regions; and secondly, they support the positioning of LEC’s concerns in policy and public debates. Three images have been drawn for each of the four DUST RFLL case study (CS) regions of Norrbotten (SE), Stara Zagora (BG), Katowice (PL), and Lusatia (DE). Presented in the form of a triptych these images represent: (1) the anticipated local policy impact, (2) communities’ envisioned probable futures, and (3) their imagined preferred futures.

​The design of the visualisations drew on input from several RFLL activities and DUST tasks. In the RFLL workshop (WS) 2, communities discussed their expectations, hopes, and dreams in the context of their region’s sustainability transition. Inspired by the UNESCO Futures Literacy Lab format, the future perspectives were framed as probable and preferred futures. To emphasize the community lens, probable futures were later represented as a ‘head vs. the outside world’. To underline a territorial approach, preferred futures scenes were anchored in a geographic regional map. These two community perspectives were juxtaposed with a policy perspective. The policy perspective foresees the impact of a selection of current and upcoming place-based sustainability transition policies. To enhance comparison with LECs’ preferred futures, also this perspective was depicted in a regional geographic setting. The methods used for analysing the policy and the community perspectives, and the approach to creating the regional designs are described under the methodology chapter.

​The output of T4.3 is a series of four triptychs representing and comparing the community and policy futures in the four case study regions where the RFLLs take place. Output was and will be used in several consecutive DUST activities. During the RFLL WS 3 communities co-created policy statements, which were further on opened for large-scale digital deliberation on the DUST Pol.is platform (T4.5). The regional designs were used to inspire the formulation of the statements, and for Pol.is information campaigns in digital and physical environments. Additionally, regional designs were also used for community storytelling in WS3: LECs were invited to take these as a starting point for telling stories about their regions. Beyond the RFLLs, the regional designs will be included in the DUST citizen position papers (D5.3), and displayed in several DUST exhibitions (WP6, T6.7). Exhibitions will be curated in all four CS regions, displaying the regional designs alongside explanatory text and audio-visual material. The exhibition material will also be promoted be used in other policy, academic and civic contexts concerned with discussing the role of communities in just sustainability transition policies. T4.6 will assess the different uses of the regional designs in and beyond the RFLLs. D4.4 will present the results from this analysis. ... Read more

This deliverable (D) 4.4 Evaluation and handbook of the Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs) evaluates the results of the RFLLs, which are the experimental part of the Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) project. The RFLLs happened in four case study regions in Norrbotten (Sweden), Katowice (Poland), Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), and Lusatia (Germany) between December 2024 and June 2025. The labs tested a novel hybrid format combining designled territorial and digital tools for the participation of least-engaged communities (LECs) in place-based sustainability transition policymaking. Engaged LECs were a rural community (Norrbotten), generations in mining families (Katowice), a community of citizens (Stara Zagora), and young people (Lusatia). The findings presented in this document elaborate to what extent the RFLL format has empowered these LECs to anticipate and envision regional structural change, how it has supported them in the building of social capital in a pluralistic and inclusive decision environment, and how it has helped the strategic and proactive positioning of their concerns in the multi-level deliberative governance of place-based sustainability transition policymaking and democratic life at scale.

In theoretical terms, the conception of RFLL format recognizes the importance of and challenges to citizen participation in place-based policymaking in the continuous, complex, and uncertain setting of sustainability transitions. Building on knowledge from the fields of public policy, spatial planning, spatial design, future studies, and democracy studies, the format emphasizes the role of anticipation and imagination, and reflexivity in the consideration of territorial, temporal, and organisation aspects of transitional development for policy learning, argumentation, and negotiation. The format also acknowledges that engaging a distinct LEC in public policymaking resembles the involvement of an ‘advocacy community’ or ‘advocacy coalition’, which requires particular attention to how community and policy fields of interest are thematically bounded, structured by narratives, and intersect. ... Read more