Next Left Future Labs

What should social democracy look like in 2035? And what kind of progressive politics do we need to build towards 2050?

The Next Left Future Labs are a new, experimental initiative bringing together progressive thinkers and practitioners to look beyond today’s political challenges and imagine the futures social democracy should help shape. Rather than focusing only on how to respond to the pressures of the present, the Future Labs create space to ask what comes next, what might change, and what European social democrats should start doing differently today.
The initiative is part of the FEPS Next Left Research Programme and builds on the rich conversations taking place across the Next Left community. It responds to a need for the progressive movement to become less defensive and more future-oriented: to anticipate long-term transformations, explore different possible scenarios and develop a clearer vision of the society it wants to create.

In 2026, the Future Labs take the form of a series of closed-door, 90-minute online discussions. Each Lab brings together a diverse group of participants from across the Next Left community and beyond, including representatives of the Next Left Focus Group, Progressive Pollsters Network, Young Academics Network, Young European Socialists, sister parties and civil society.

Each session focuses on a key challenge for the future of European social democracy, explored from theoretical, analytical and practical perspectives. Discussions look beyond immediate diagnosis to consider possible developments over the next decade and towards 2050, and to identify what these futures could mean for the renewal of social democracy. The first Future Labs series address questions including progressivism and pluralism on the
centre-left, the cost-of-living crisis, diverse constituencies, political narratives, international solidarity and confrontational politics.

The discussions will contribute to a collection of short discussion papers, bringing together the ideas and recommendations emerging from the Labs. The publication will provide a forward-looking contribution to the debate about how social democracy can renew its mission, respond to a changing political landscape and, ultimately, move from reacting to the future to actively shaping it.