In the Plekberaad of Leiden 2022 at the 30th of June 2022, the young project team organises a dialogue about the future of Leiden.

At the Burcht of Leiden 30 young Leideners, local politicians and pioneers in sustainability and community come together. They discover what Leiden looks like in 6 generations, in the year 2112. What does life look like then, to the people that live in Leiden then?

For all participants Leiden is their ‘plek’, their hometown in a way. In this deliberation participants share the themes they encounter in their journey to the future. From this image of the future they map the challenges that are relevant to Leiden, and how these can be translated into solutions.

Together, the group takes responsibility for the long term of their ‘plek’, and advocates a switch from short term thinking to long term perspective. In the Plekberaad the Future Design Method. Read more about that here in the artikel of The Scientific Council for Government Policy: “Talking back to the present: giving voice to future generations” [https://www.wrr.nl/publicaties/publicaties/2022/05/23/jongeren-en-het-zorgen-voor-hun-morgen ]. The method allows to incorporate both the interests of current generations and future generation in the making of long term policy. This is done by dividing the group into two halves. The one half focuses form the ‘here and now’ on the future. The other half envisions themselves being the Leideners of the year 2112 and looks for solutions from that point in time.

The results will be shared both locally and nationally. Locally the organisation hopes to contribute to the dialogue about the future, and the role that art and science can play in it. Nationally, in collaboration the the “Ministry of the Future” network [https://www.ministerievandetoekomst.nl/