Project
Qualitative survey to extract “post-corona” future aspirations (from Generation Y women* living in Berlin).
Challenge
The coronavirus crisis brought the world to a sudden, unexpected stop, changing many aspects of our lives. In the spring/summer 2020, we teamed up and decided to use that particular moment to collect thoughts, hopes and wishes about the changes that were going on. Besides the many negative aspects, we were interested in gathering potential positive future effects the pandemic and the lockdown might have brought.
Approach
PHASE 1
For the qualitative survey, we developed a questionnaire with 22 open questions. These revolved around perceived challenges, beauty and aesthetic, relationships, feelings towards the city and the neighbourhood, work, togetherness and the future. The participants were asked to fill in the questionnaire either autonomously – via collaborative documents – or with the support of the research team – via Whatsapp or Telegram. In addition to written answers, the participants were encouraged to share artefacts or symbols of their everyday life with the help of photographs.
PHASE 2
47 participants took part and their answers were collected, evaluated and categorised.
PHASE 3
Based on the results, the Futures Probes team created two narrative future scenarios. In them, “a day in the life of” two fictional protagonists – Marta and Paula –, living in Berlin in 2040, was described.
PHASE 4
The project was edited and published, together with the theoretical background it relied on, on the Corona Futures platform.
Outcome
- Making change and potential for change visible
- Opening up spaces for possibility and imagination
- Documenting the wishes and hopes of Generation Y women* living in Berlin
- Making future scenarios tangible and comprehensible
The project was published on the Corona Futures platform. Also, the journalist Elena Witzeck wrote about it in an article titled “When everything is over” and published in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
You can find the complete presentation of the results here.
”I really enjoyed filling in the questionnaire! It helped me to truly reflect on how I feel these days. In fact, there is one question I ask myself quite often at the moment: Is this new normal our new normal? And if it is, do I like it?
Participant #37
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