Revolutionising urban futures: Trendhunters reimagines Dún Laoghaire
Posted on: 08 December 2023
A first pilot took place from November 2022 until February 2023 and the programme is launching again in the upcoming months.
Smart Dún Laoghaire is the result of a collaboration between CONNECT Centre, the SFI centre for Future Networks headquartered at Trinity College Dublin, and the Digital Strategy team at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
This smart city research programme falls under the Smart Dublin umbrella and it hosts a coming together of industry, citizens and academia, facilitated by the public body of Dún Laoghaire to open up the conversation and to learn from their perspectives.
Their new engagement programme Trendhunters was established as a response to an ever-changing society and uses citizen science to work towards future-proofing the town.
During this 12-week programme, Smart Dún Laoghaire engages with the local community to teach them how to conduct futures research and use this new knowledge to create preferred images of the future. Smart Dún Laoghaire aims to use these images of the future as input into the creation of better and more inclusive futures for our citizens.
“This programme is at the interface of futurology and smart cities, making it a valuable source for future smart city projects that could future-proof the city,”says Amber Desprets, initiator and leader of Trendhunters.
The aim of this futurism engagement programme is to raise more awareness around futures studies to demonstrate their importance in engaging our citizens to drive change from the bottom-up in a smart city environment. It focuses on the exploration and shaping of preferred personal futures and on preparation and adaptation for alternative futures.
Students will learn how to identify societal trends, create alternative futures, design artefacts of the future and speculate around emerging tech, science and innovations. Each student will have the opportunity to navigate the future of one chosen topic. Their topic can be chosen from 27 futures across 7 categories: future of life, future of movement, future of culture, future of communities, future of identity, future of nature, or future of landscapes.
Trendhunters aims to establish a springboard to an inclusive, future-proof town where all citizens feel fulfilled.
Siobhán Clarke, Professor of Software Systems in Trinity College Dublin and Director of the SFI Enable Programme, noted:
“ThroughTrendhunters we introduce the principles of futures studies to local communities in the expectation that the outcomes will underpin our academic research in a truly collaborative way. It is essential to examine our foundational assumptions and researching probable and preferrable futures will provide exciting learning opportunities from which we can construct an inclusive future for our citizens.”
Ronan Herron, Digital Strategy Officer in Dún Laoghaire-RathdownCounty Council, said:
“Introducing anticipatory governance into our council enables us to embrace uncertainty, to understand it and to make it part of our reasoning. Trendhunters will lead to projects that future-proof our town, both for the probable and preferred futures.”
For more information or to engage see the Trendhunters programme website.