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Three key deliverables on Spatial Mapping, Regional Design, and Digital Participation

We’re thrilled to share three new deliverables from the DUST (Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions) project: 


These deliverables come as the first in the experimental phase of our project in which our Regional Futures Literacy Labs (RFLLs) have generated a wealth of insights on putting communities at the centre of sustainability transitions. 


Deliverable 4.1: Spatial representation of the just sustainability transition policy  context in case study regions 


Deliverable 4.1 provides a comprehensive, spatially structured mapping of the policy context for just sustainability transitions in the four DUST case study regions: Stara Zagora (BG), Lusatia (DE), Katowice (PL), and Norrbotten (SE). Building on research from Work Packages 2 and 3, it creates a living database using an adapted Territorial Capital framework and GIS tools to visualise the projected impacts of ongoing and upcoming policy measures. The deliverable includes the Territorial Capital Catalogue (TCC), which categorizes key social, ecological, and infrastructural capitals across policies. 


This resource is designed to support participatory experimentation in the RFLLs, allowing participants to compare policy projections with community-imagined measures, co-develop policy statements, and deliberate them through the digital tool Pol.is. As interactions in the RFLLs progress, the database will be continuously updated and refined. 


Read more here. 


Deliverable 4.2: Regional designs: Imagining community-led just sustainability transition policies 


Deliverable 4.2 produces a series of design-led regional visualisations to support participatory experimentation in the RFLLs. The output consists of four triptychs—one for each case study region (Norrbotten, SE; Stara Zagora, BG; Katowice, PL; Lusatia, DE)—that juxtapose three perspectives: (1) anticipated local policy impacts, (2) communities’ probable futures, and (3) communities’ preferred futures. 


These visualisations combine insights from RFLL workshops, community discussions, and policy analysis, using a territorial and narrative approach to make community perspectives visible and comparable with policy projections. They serve multiple purposes: inspiring co-created policy statements, facilitating storytelling by least-engaged communities (LECs), supporting large-scale digital deliberation via Pol.is, and informing citizen position papers and public exhibitions. As such, the regional designs function as both analytical and participatory tools, promoting the integration of community concerns into sustainability transition policymaking and wider public debates. 


Read more here. 


Deliverable 4.3: Pol.is outputs: Rated statements on alternative community-led just sustainability transition policies 


Deliverable 4.3 documents the use of the e-democracy tool Pol.is in the RFLL process to facilitate large-scale, consensus-oriented deliberation on sustainability transition policies. Pol.is is an open-source platform that enables diverse publics to engage with policy statements, add nuanced comments, and organise discussions around themes, generating clusters of consent (and dis-consent). Designed to lower participation barriers and foster structured dialogue, the tool enhances participatory approaches by allowing low-cost, scalable engagement even in contexts with limited pre-existing trust among participants. 


Between January and May 2025, DUST partners tested Pol.is across the four case study regions—Norrbotten (SE), Katowice (PL), Lusatia (DE), and Stara Zagora (BG)—in three phases: preparation, implementation, and assessment. Seed statements developed during RFLL workshops were used to initiate deliberations, supported by campaigns to attract participants and moderated to ensure constructive engagement. The collected data provides insights into the complementarities between digital and analogue participation, feeds into co-creation of policy statements, and will support a comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of Pol.is alongside other RFLL tools. 


Read more here. 


Taken together, these outputs represent a major step in the project, in which our experimentation activities allow us to generate new insights, and showcase powerful methodologies like these used for spatial representation, regional design and e-democracy. Our approach is creating actionable pathways to better listen to those impacted by the transition across Europe and remind us the importance of valuing people, place, and participation. 


As DUST moves forward, these deliverables will feed into citizen position papers, public exhibitions, and policy dialogues across Europe. They’re more than just deliverables: they’re building blocks for a more democratic, just, and sustainable future. 

 
 
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