In today’s world, platforms like AirBnb and Uber are increasingly creating connections and exchanges. Platform co-ops want to go one step further to serve the communities who use them by offering a new model of ownership for a more democratic future, with peer-to-peer tech and ‘sensual’ social software. In this guest post by Oliver Sylvester-Bradley, co-founder of

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These are the women who make us realise that the future is not as f* as you think… As a women-led team, don’t get us started on the concept of Women’s Day. Every day we celebrate the collective efforts of those who care about human rights. However, this 8 March does give us an excuse to

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What a week. (Does anyone know what day it is?) This week saw the digital landscape flooded with action: Earth Day turned 50 and went digital for the first time – and Fashion Revolution, the world’s largest fashion activism movement, named (and shamed) the transparency of the world’s biggest brands. As fashion, culture and climate

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Good news: Kindness has gone viral. OK, things are definitely weird now that we’re inside for the foreseeable. But on the plus side, the coronavirus outbreak’s crowning glory is a digital tidal wave of sharing, collaboration, mutual support and entertainment.  Volunteering sites like Invisible hands are quickly mobilising communities to pull together to deliver supplies

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It’s time to work together. It’s time to think creatively. And it’s time to be useful. That’s why we’re collating your stories of real action and resilience in the face of crisis.  This is an accumulative list of the projects rapidly popping up all round the world with one thing in common: facing the coronavirus

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Have you been naughty or nice this year? Good news: you can redeem yourselves! As the bumpy, transformative, but never-boring 2018 comes to a close, we’re spinning ‘The 12 days of Christmas’ into 12 sparkly, positive ways to take action and spread holiday cheer. No ode to conspicuous consumption here. Join a flavour mutiny, put plastic

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Because it’s not all about science and tech you know, we’ve been on a mission to map creative and cultural projects for social good. Now it’s time to introduce you to some of those creators fighting for a better future and more imaginative world – in person! Join us at in London at Goldsmiths, University

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Imagine if you could click a button and be able to grow and make almost anything. That’s what Fab City is all about: a creative collective of pioneers and makers who simply want digital technology to make the world more self-sufficient. And they’re doing it more than one city at a time. In fact, 28 cities are already

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Imagine if you could get a ‘city’ to agree to making the world more self-sufficient. A creative team of pioneers and makers is doing exactly that. They’ve created a set of ten principles as a sort of instruction manual to build a more sustainable and inhabitable new world. And they’re getting cities to agree to it. In fact, 28

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Did you know you don’t always have to cook with food? As part of our new CultureFutures project we’ve been digging deep into the imaginations of artists, chefs, designers and material makers as they help build a better world – in all its delicious glory. From precious plastics to seeds with stories, in this week’s Future 5 we’re

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“Not everybody wants to work for money on a platter. Sometimes we do things just because they matter.” An economist, a songwriter and a puppet-maker walked into a recording studio. What do you think came out?… We love a surprising collaboration, but didn’t see this one coming: animatronic-loving puppet designer Emma Powell, musician Simon Panrucker and renegade

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Something special is happening inside an old school made from recycled salvage from a theatre company, decommissioned bio labs and art freight containers. As London’s first incubator workspace for urban farming entrepreneurs and ‘agritech’ startups, the Green Lab is creating a vibrant city community for creative sustainable food innovators. Having previously co-founded Fab Lab London, Ande Gregson was

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Blockchain isn’t just about finance and Bitcoin, but when Jessi Baker started Provenance that wasn’t the case. That’s why her idea was considered crazy at first. The software company uses technologies like the blockchain to help businesses share truths about the people, places and materials involved in their products. Labelled as one of the UK’s ‘coolest female startup

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“We either build the future we want, or become the victims of it.” As Director of Fab Lab Barcelona at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, Tomás Diez constantly breaks the rules when it comes to education, business, science, urbanism, farming, environmentalism, design, and housing… you name it. In this AtlasChart, the Venezuelan digital fabrication urbanist opens up about projects in

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In the 1980s, sci-fi prophet William Gibson coined the term ‘cyberspace’ to describe a consensual hallucination created by millions of computers that we can jack into. By 2003 the visionary had warned: “The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.” Even though we are optimists at the Atlas, we’re also big fans of dystopian

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When you find yourselves somewhere between Gotham City Police HQ and Blade Runner’s Leon’s Hotel chatting to a Westworld sexbot you know that it’s been an interesting – and surprising – year. OK, it’s been relentless too, but there are so many reasons to feel hopeful. From Cameroon to Patagonia, 2017 has seen your projects make the

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Every year Sónar+D forms a key part of the stamina-pushing Sónar Festival, one of Europe’s biggest and most forward-thinking dance music events. If you have ever wondered what the D stands for, it all becomes clear when you look at it like this… SónaR+D. While festivalgoers rave outside, its lab space acts as a node between the innovation, creative and

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Makers are inventors, creators, engineers, students or grassroot innovators who enjoy play and exploration – but they can also be people who simply want to make the world a better place. And where better to innovate and experiment than in a city? Back in San Francisco in 2006, the Maker Movement arose out of the launch of MAKE: Magazine. Today, hundreds of thousands of people attend Maker Faire, the

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It is now more important than ever that communities of people take a stand for the things they believe, and protect things that they previously had taken for granted. That’s why Tech For Good Co-founder Cassie Robinson got in touch with a bunch of people working to make the world better to ask them they were personally going to commit to – and what

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As the world turns upside down and unhinged becomes the new normal, we want to provide some positivity from within the deep divisions of 2016. Take comfort. The world is better than you think. From Silicon Valley to Bulambuli Valley, social entrepreneurs are tackling the world’s most difficult problems. Technology is being democratised, access to education is causing global

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This year might have had its dark times, but there are many reasons to get excited. From the Faroe Islands to Patagonia, 2016 has seen the Atlas travel far and wide to bring you projects that democratise the future. Thanks to your suggestions and innovations, over the last six months we’ve explored sex hacks and exposed fast fashion; shone a light on projects bringing

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As co-founder of the open source building system WikiHouse, Alastair Parvin sees democracy as a design blueprint, has never shied away from provocation and likes people who are trying to be useful or doing seriously disruptive stuff. Take a journey through his favourite Atlas projects.   1. Ethereum This super-interesting project is looking at how you can use the

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“Humans are amazing, especially in times of struggle, but to make social change, we need to be moved.” Two theatre-troublemakers are breaking all the rules with their radically inclusive female-led theatre collective. Rhiannon White and Evie Manning have created Common Wealth Theatre to breathe life into stories by taking theatre out of the theatre – smashing right through the middle

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“To change the world, we need to change the people who will change it.” Social analyst and world scout guru Eduard Vallory wants us to take advantage of the current health crisis to rethink the education system – although he is convinced that before the pandemic, the system was already weakening. President of the UNESCO Centre

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As part of Civic Square’s Department of Dreams project, on 22 June 2020 we will be offering a half day of talks during the Re_Festival: focused on hope for a collective brighter future. In each session you will hear about their work and have an opportunity to ask questions and be part of the discussion

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Welcome to Groundhog May. In most parts of the world May is a time of joy, when everything seems possible; spring has sprung, swifts and swallows swoop, trees blossom and buds open (in my case, chilli plants). And the birds and bees go for it.  While this spring will be remembered as the one where everything

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If ever there was a time to get innovative, it’s now. While Tuesday saw World Health Day give respect and support to the people protecting our lives around the world, we all know that all the claps in the world will never be enough. So do everyone a favour: stay at home and read these five amazing innovations from

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Exciting rewilding projects are happening at vastly different scales all around the world – as more and more people make efforts to replant trees by the billion, and reintroduce species.  It is no longer good enough to just talk about halting the destruction of our natural world. We have to to move to a restoration

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Celebrated ocean conservationist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson knows that caring about the ocean doesn’t just mean thinking about marine ecosystems, but people too. That’s why the invertebrate-loving Brooklynite has made her focus the intersection between ocean conservation, coastal communities and social justice. “There is a home for everyone in this movement – in conservation, climate

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This week, the Global Climate Strike will go down in history. On Friday 20 September 2019, the world witnessed the biggest environmental protest the world has ever seen.  In 185 countries, from Kabul, Afghanistan to New Delhi, India, millions of children didn’t turn up to school. Instead they took to the streets to support young climate strikers

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… and into gyms, refugee camps and pirate radio. These 8 colourful projects combine art, creative optimism and street smarts from Lombok to Lagos.   1. Togetherness starts with a tee Check out the doodles above by New York-based illustrator Jon Burgerman, with dreamscapes by Emmy-winning artist Mike Perry and Supermundane’s bold lettering. Top street

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Cows are often the scape-goats (or scape-cows) for climate change; the methane-burping livestock animals have become confused with our management of them. By giving the animals a more holistic hook, carbon-canny cattle rancher Tony Lovell, co-founder of SLM Australia Livestock Fund, has raised a whopping $100 million to help to regenerate the billions of hectares of damaged

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Blazing a trail for other women, Christine Fox has held the highest rank ever for a woman at the Pentagon and was the inspiration for the Kelly McGillis character ‘Charlie’ in arguably the best film of the 80s… Top Gun (of course). The first female Deputy Secretary of Defense (Acting) in American history has flown in B-52s, escaped submerged

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If we had asked former chief architect of Barcelona City Council Vicente Guallart what his favourite city in the world was in the 1990s, he would have said Barcelona. In the 2000s he preferred Colombia’s Medellín. Vicente uses the principles of global connectivity and local self-sufficiency to invent the city of the future and build it in the

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Biodiversity is a hot topic at the moment, but what is it? Put simply, biodiversity helps regulate climate, air, soil and pretty much all of the good things we need for life. But a drop in global biodiversity is putting our ability to produce food at risk. Insects are dying off at record rates — an

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An egg has become Instagram’s most-liked post ever. Yep, a regular egg. In its shell, without avocado. The world’s most famous egg now has 54 million likes on Instagram (and counting). Welcome to 2019… Despite its rising profile, the industrial egg is starting to crack as people look for plant-based solutions. Is the egg toast? As Veganuary convinces people to ditch meat

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Climate change is probably the most urgent problem facing our species and the planet today. It even threatens the existence of our favourite species: homo sapiens. In September we went to the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS 2018) in San Francisco to create a series of videos on a global investor movement that’s accelerating the

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Hip Hop Caucus are using the power of hip hop culture to activate people across America and around the world to be an active part of the civic process and make change happen in their own communities. Hip hop, the Caucus don’t stop – not until everyone feels able to take action and have their voice

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If you’ve taken part in a morning rave, group run or public art experience; if you’ve joined a campaign to improve your neighbourhood or teamed up to better your workplace; if you’ve shared knowledge or data to bring about a change you want to see, you will know the joy and power of the collective.

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Good news: the power of true happiness can be discovered collectively. Australian-born, British-based socialist feminist academic and cheery activist Lynne Segal wants us to embrace the art of ‘radical happiness’ – the liberation that comes with transformative, collective joy.  With such obvious ecological disaster looming and an ideology of individual happiness thriving, today, more than ever, we

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“We know a new politics of solidarity, individual responsibility and collective transformation is urgently needed. Can we culturally educate ourselves to understand how to create it?” This question has driven community-based arts educator, author, playwright, poet and eco-cultural activist Dan Baron Cohen for many years. He’s travelled from ground-breaking work in post-industrial Manchester and conflict-transformation projects

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“The youth are co-creators, coordinators and researchers of everything that Rios de Encontro does.” – Dan Baron Cohen, Co-founder, Rios de Encontro In the small Afro-Indigenous community of Cabelo Seco, Marabá City in Brazil – once known as a ‘no-go favela’ – an arts-as-transformation project in the Amazon is addressing the survival of both the community and our

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“It’s in the freely shared ideas that collisions, oddities and thrills emerge.” – Mary Anne Moser, Beakerhead Co-founder Widely known as ‘the world’s greatest arts-science smash-up’, Beakerhead makes breaking down the complex look effortless – but it takes a collective effort to make STEAM this fun. A fire-breathing serpent mother, inflatable octopus, trash robot, giant

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In an era of rising environmental awareness, cleantech has become the fastest-growing technology sector in the world. And sunny California loves it. That’s why they buy more electric cars and do more recycling than any place else. So what is ‘cleantech’? At its simplest, it’s any technology that helps a more efficient use of natural resources. We travelled

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Hip hop and politics. Blind photographers. Crayons and big ideas. In this week’s CultureFutures special we’re exploring creativity in surprising areas. In Rwanda, teenage girls have created its biggest media brand. In Spain, a photojournalist has set up the world’s first ‘special photographer’ agency for people with intellectual disabilities. And in Senegal, they’re rapping the news.

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From culinary creativity and food fads to a dystopian future soil crisis, friends of the Atlas ask Dan Barber – Blue Hill chef and co-founder of Row 7 Seed Company – their burning questions…    1. Ande Gregson, founder of GreenLab, an experimental space in London for urban agriculture: “Is urban agriculture future or fad?

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Britain’s most ethical restaurant doesn’t have a bin. Founded by ex-St John chef Dougie McMaster, the team at Silo brews its own booze, mills its own flour, churns its own butter and even has chairs made from jeans and plates formed from plastic bags.  At the UK’s first ever zero waste restaurant, all materials are digestible by

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It takes a special combo of people and ideas to make an event what it is, not just on stage, but everyone involved. Having just caught our breath after our first event Fixing the future, we have newfound appreciation for those of you putting on some of our favourite congresses, like Maker Faire, Vevolution, OFFF

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A microgreen-fingered hydroponic hero is proving that ‘zero km’ is possible – in London’s disused bomb shelters. With his groundbreaking subterranean farm Growing Underground, Richard Ballard demonstrates how plants don’t need sunlight and that urban agriculture can help tackle food scarcity. Located 100 feet (33 metres) under the streets of London in a disused World War II air raid shelter,

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We’re big fans of simple tech that makes things better. While mobile Internet rapidly becomes a primary source of knowledge, not everyone is connected. But SMS, the default messaging tool in parts of the developing world, still only requires simple feature phones. Last weekend the millennial ‘Short Message Service’ (it used to be very short!) turned

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Today carbon is considered a dirty word; consigned to dirt, dust, something that’s in the air, something that is dark. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Taking many forms, from diamonds to exhalation of CO2 as a gas, carbon can be used for good. And that’s the idea behind Carbon Productivity. As we struggle with climate catastrophe, this remarkable

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There is no better time to reboot our world than right now – which means there is no better time to read this book. At the Atlas, we love people who speak ‘human’. Anyone who tells stories that help everyone understand the super-cool stuff making the world better is alright in our book. In his latest slice of

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“Carbon is risky, it’s bad for the world. How can we continue to invest in something that’s increasingly dangerous, risky and therefore a bad idea? Let’s stop that and let’s do something else!” Francesco Starace is the CEO of Enel Group, one of the largest producers of renewable energy in the world. His vision for the

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Nearly one quarter of the world’s population live in off-grid communities. Without access to electricity, households grind to a halt after sunset. Work is limited, medical care is dangerous to provide and education levels drop where children cannot study in the dark. Right now, many of those households use ‘dirty’ kerosene lamps after the sun has gone down. Known for

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Nearly ten years ago, in the Tuscan seaside town of Livorno, a robotics researcher asked her father to catch her an octopus. Cecilia Laschi knew that a different bodyware was needed in robotics. The Professor of Biorobotics at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies went on to create a rob-octopus as a model for a project researching the new generation

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Parag Khanna loves maps. Born in India, his parents took him everywhere on their travels while growing up in the United Arab Emirates, New York and Germany: “Whether finding maps in the glove compartment or flipping through the maps in airline seat pockets, maps always kept me busy,” the bestselling geopolitical author tells us. “They gave me a

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A lot of staring at screens happens at Mobile World Congress – whether tapping away at your own rapidly depreciating handset, ogling smarter ones, deciphering the agenda, or (in my case) simply trying to download the app that gets you a free coffee. ‘Mobile Is Everything’. The clue is in the slogan, but Barcelona’s MWC isn’t just about mobiles. Amid

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Atlas of the Future is looking for a dynamic and results-driven Community Manager based in Barcelona to develop and execute an exciting social media strategy. We map innovative, future-focused, socially impactful projects and people around the world and our mission is to ‘democratise the future’. This means making sure developments are understandable and entertaining – not

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Last week, Arpa-E Director Dr Ellen Williams announced that her department had developed an energy storage device to rival Elon Musk’s Tesla battery. The research arm of the US Department of Energy (DoE) claims the discovery of game-changing energy storage technologies could open the uptake of clean energy to everyone. In an interview with the Guardian,

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From a Noah’s Ark of seeds and American Idol for rural farmers to 3D printing prosthetics in conflict zones and igloo orphanages on skis, this year has seen hundreds of projects mapped on the Atlas from Syria to the North Pole. We’re celebrating the end of 2015 and looking to the future by ranking our favourite 16.  So get your

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