An overview of developments in backcasting has been given in Chapter 2, focussing on the recent developments and attention to apply participatory backcasting on sustainable consumption, sustainable lifestyles and communities
A participatory backcasting methodology has been developed for the GLAMURS project, entitled participatory backcasting for sustainable lifestyles and a green economy. It consists of two stakeholder workshops; a first workshop for problem exploration and development of visions for sustainable lifestyle and a green economy followed by a second workshop focussing on pathways and implementation.
In six regions studied in the GLAMURS project vision workshops have been successfully executed using the developed format and guidelines with the flexibility to adjust to local aspects and available expertise in the organising teams.
In order to get sufficient diversity in the generated visions, the distinction between on the one hand a sufficiency society based on degrowth and moderation of consumption and on the other hand a green growth society based on solving sustainability problems via environmental innovation and a circular economy has been used as an input for the vision workshops.
All workshops attracted on average 15-20 participants from civil society and bottom-up initiatives, government, and knowledge organisations, whereas the presence of business was lower.
Thirteen visions have been generated. In the Netherlands and Spain three visions were generated, in Austria partial visions were integrated into one overall vision, while in Germany, Italy, and Romania two visions were developed. In all workshops it was needed to process workshop results further and to elaborate the visions more, thereby identifying issues for further elaboration.
Visions have been compared on several dimensions including (1) sufficiency versus green growth, (2) individual versus community orientation, (3) governance by government or market, and (4) urban versus rural focus.
The first and fourth dimension appeared most useful to show diversity in the set of visions and is most appropriate for defining clusters of visions.
A range of methods have been applied during the backcasting vision workshops, which all contributed reaching the goals as set.
Considerable learning has taken place among both participants and local case study team organisers.
Visions have been fed into a second series of backcasting pathway workshops on which is reported elsewhere (Quist and Leising 2016).

A participatory backcasting methodology has been developed for the GLAMURS project, entitled participatory backcasting for sustainable lifestyles and a green economy. It consists of two stakeholder workshops; a first workshop for problem exploration and development of visions for sustainable lifestyle and a green economy followed by a second workshop focussing on pathways and implementation. In seven regions studied in the GLAMURS project pathways and implementation workshops have been successfully executed using the developed format and guidelines with the flexibility to adjust to local aspects and available expertise in the organising teams. In order to get sufficient diversity in the generated visions, the distinction between a sufficiency society based on degrowth and moderation of consumption and a green growth society based on solving sustainability problems via environmental innovation and a circular economy has been used as an input for the vision workshops and the pathways and implementation workshops consequently. The second workshop round attracted on average 10-15 participants from civil society and bottom-up initiatives, government, and knowledge institutions, whereas the presence of business was lower. Methods applied during the backcasting pathways workshops are rather similar, but show some diversity, which all contributed to reaching the goals as set.. Considerable learning has taken place among both participants and local case study team organisers. Fourteen pathways and implementations proposals based on the (elaborated) visions have been generated. In all workshops it was needed to process workshop results further and to elaborate on the pathways to provide a coherent and integrated storyline. Visions have been compared on several dimensions including (1) sufficiency versus green growth, (2) individual versus community orientation, (3) governance by government or market, and (4) urban versus rural focus. The combination of the first and fourth dimension appeared most useful to show diversity in the set of visions and reveals four clusters of visions. The four clusters of visions that emerged are: a cluster of four rural sufficiency visions, a cluster of four urban sufficiency visions, a cluster of four green growth visions, and a cluster of two “other” visions. Based on these four (sub)clusters pathways have been compared on (1) cultural-behavioural changes, (2) technological changes, (3) structural policy institutional changes and (4) organisational changes. It is recommended to elaborate the four clusters of visions further in order to develop pathways and recommendations that have not only broader relevance for countries in Europe, but also have relevance at the European level.