This paper describes a participatory pastcasting workshop designed using action-oriented design research methods in close collaboration with practitioners from Omställningsnätverket (the Swedish Transition Network) as co-researchers. The paper deepens the theoretical understanding of how to implement pastcasting, a novel addition to futures studies methodologies aimed at societal transformation. We outline the process of designing the workshop format and insights from running the workshop in two different locations in Sweden. We propose that exploring complex problems such as climate change as if they have already been solved in an alternative, more desirable present and then imagining what we did to address them in the recent past is liberating and generative of ideas for action. We argue that this methodology is a powerful addition to other futuring techniques as it concretises urgently needed societal transformations and brings them closer to people and their communities.

Transitions of transport systems are necessary to meet climate targets and reach sustainable development goals. Sustainable transport needs to be equitable, efficient, safe, and green. Transport systems need to become less resource-intensive, whereby sharing and utilising resources more efficiently can be a route forward. However, for well-functioning sharing, the involved stakeholders need to collaborate. Thus, sharing resources can mean sharing material and physical resources, such as vehicles and places, but it can also mean sharing immaterial and intangible resources, such as time and responsibilities. Through an interview study exploring shared resources in goods deliveries at off-peak hours in Stockholm-based trials, opportunities for organising transport system innovations have been investigated. Interviews were carried out with thirteen respondents involved in, or related to, off-peak logistics, and trigger materials were used to deepen the conversation when discussing the logistics service systems. Off-peak trials can be seen as innovation processes affected by several conditions. Innovation processes are collaborative, and collaborative innovation involves decision-making coordination across organisational boundaries. The concepts of sensemaking and sensegiving are used to analyse the studied collaborative innovation processes. However, stakeholders engaged in innovating sustainable transport systems must find new ways to collaborate, as ambiguity and uncertainty are more extensive than in their day-to-day business development or the incremental development of new services. This study shows that conditions for such collaborative innovation processes vary between different types of collaborative settings, as innovation depends on the transformative capacity to alter types of stakeholder agreements and roles and agree on how to share resources and design such sharing. Designing for resource sharing requires understanding how to design tangible and intangible buffers, and for the involved stakeholders to make sense of such new designs.

Self-driving vehicles have been hailed as a revolutionary force that will benefit society through increased accessibility and reduced accident rates. However, implementing such a new technological system will be complex, requiring immense societal adaptions and changes. In this paper, we analyse the challenges faced in implementing self-driving vehicles based on interviews with onboard operators and stakeholders responsible for the operations of self-driving buses in northwest Stockholm, Sweden. From these interviews, we suggest a framework for understanding which societal changes would be required to implement self-driving vehicles.

We highlight the complexities of self-driving and the sociotechnical perspective needed to understand the challenges of implementing self-driving vehicles, underscoring human drivers' complex and tacit knowledge. Further, we identify a crucial technological gap in the vehicles' understanding of context, suggesting that comprehensive self-driving operation requires a form of general intelligence beyond the current, specialised, driving-only intelligence. The findings presented in this paper pave the way for further research and efforts needed to enable broader adoption of self-driving vehicles and offer insights for policymakers to guide future legislation in self-driving transport. 

In conclusion, several adaptions are required to facilitate self-driving vehicles. However, policymakers are advised to uphold stringent transport requirements, regardless of human or machine drivers, and resist any pressures to unnecessarily relax regulations. Such a cautious approach will ensure the continued prioritisation of safety and efficacy without compromising the human norms and behaviours that are integral and necessary to transport systems. 

To support sustainability transitions several different design approaches are required. In a series of Designerly Living Labs, we have prototyped possible sustainable futures in the context of people’s everyday lives to explore the complexities of lifestyle changes and socio-technical system shifts. Together with users engaged as reflexive co-researchers, we have explored potential new practices and uncovered system-level tensions and deficiencies. System changes have been initiated by engaging relevant actors in learning processes and by bridging learning to decision-makers. However, the approach requires some rethinking of design as a practice. Instead of supporting people’s current needs and lifestyles, we design for sustainable futures that users do not yet request. This emerging design practice challenges traditional co-design and user participation methods, leading to new ethical considerations.

When designing for sustainability, design as a practice needs an altered position. Designing learning spaces with a practice-oriented design can be such an approach. In three mobility interventions that were design-led practice interventions, this design practice was tried out. Furthermore, in these interventions, conditions for sustainable mobility practices were studied. As a suggested design for sustainability approach, aiming to transform socio-technical systems, a design focus on enabling learning spaces where collaborative sensemaking takes place is proposed. However, designing such learning spaces requires careful crafting and designing with altered design postures. 

Digitally enabled neighbourhood telecommuting centres (NTCs) in residential areas may have the potential to reduce the environmental burdens of transport by shortening work trips and enabling modal shifts. This paper presents the results of a Living Lab where 67 participants were given access to an NTC. Through this Living Lab, this study identifies several conditions required for an NTC to substantially reduce commuting and overall have a positive impact on sustainable travel. The results indicate that while a small group of participants who lived very close to the NTC made significant lifestyle changes and adopted more sustainable travel practices, the overall changes in the sustainability aspects of travel for most participants were minimal. The majority of the participants merely exchanged a day spent working from home for a day at the NTC, as they were only allowed to be absent from the employer’s office one day per week. Further, some participants found it difficult to work remotely due to organisational roles and workplace norms. Another factor that limited the sustainability effect of the NTC was that most participants normally commuted by train, but in a few cases travelled to the NTC by car. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, most participants were required to work exclusively from home, which proved to have both positive and negative effects on the participants’ everyday lives and well-being. The participants reported a radical shift in attitudes towards remote working during this period, which they believed could lead to remote working becoming more common after the pandemic. In this case, NTCs could possibly play an important role in enabling this shift, by remedying some of the identified drawbacks of working from home. This could in turn enable a larger reduction in commuting. In areas where more people commute by car, sustainability effects would likely be greater.