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Short abstract:

The Futurium, the House of Futures in Berlin, contributes insights from its everyday work to the panel discussion and reflects on its participatory forms of science communications

Long abstract:

We – represented by our Head of Department “Strategy and Content” Dr Karena Kalmbach – would like to contribute insights from our everyday work to the panel discussion. Together with the other participants we would like to reflect on how we can work on improving – as the conveners nicely phrased it in the panel description – “the strained relations between science and society in the context of the climate crisis by engaging citizens and scholars in new constellations”.

“We”, that is the Futurium, the House of Futures in Berlin: an exhibition / lab / event space located in the center of Berlin where everything revolves around the question: How can we collectively build sustainable futures? We are a mainly publicly funded institution with renowned partners from politics, science, foundations and business. Last year, we could welcome more than 760,000 visitors. With these figures, the Futurium is amongst the 10 most visited museum places in Berlin. Through our exhibits, workshops, events, and hand-on-experiences as well as through our educational material and (digital) communications we try to create participatory forms of science communications. With our approach, we aim at leaving the public-deficit model behind and instead building on and enhancing people’s futures literacies – in which scientific knowledge and reasoning takes center stage in the imagination of just and sustainable futures.