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.  

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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.  

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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.