Writing Contributor, The Impossible Futures Lab

You write two analyses that imagine the world of 2050 and ground it in data: climate, geopolitics, democracy, crises and everyday life. Two analyses in one 3-month cycle, five places, fully remote.

Read the lab’s research avenues: research avenues

HOW TO APPLY

Apply here on Idealist. In a few lines, present the topic you propose, your angle and what makes it original. Start from one of the lab’s research avenues listed below, or propose another topic linked to the lab.

THE ASSIGNMENT AT A GLANCE

• Lab: The Impossible Futures Lab (Foresight 2050)
• What you write: two analyses, in English or French, of 430 to 1,600 words each (op-ed, analysis brief or field piece)
• Places: 5 contributors for this lab
• Cycle: 3 months, from 1 December 2026 to 28 February 2027
• Renewal: once, for a second cycle from 1 March to 31 May 2027
• Time: 3 to 5 hours a week
• Location: fully remote, from any country
• Fully voluntary assignment

ABOUT THE LAB

The Impossible Futures Lab opens a space where young people imagine the world of 2050 and debate it: climate, geopolitics, democracy, crises, everyday life. Workshops, stories and scenarios are designed to give everyone the means to think about the future, discuss it and choose the one we want to build.

Lab page: The Impossible Futures Lab

THE TOPICS: THE LAB’S RESEARCH AVENUES

• Geopolitics in 2050: Rising powers, critical resources, shipping routes, alliances between countries of the Global South: mapping the balance of the world a generation from now.
• Democracy in 2050: Citizens’ assemblies chosen by lot, digital voting, disinformation, authoritarian temptations: imagining democracies able to decide together thirty years from now.
• Getting through crises: Pandemics, climate shocks, food and financial crises that follow one another: thinking about how societies stay resilient when crises feed each other.
• A day in 2050: Housing, work, food, mobility, learning: telling the everyday life of a young person in 2050, in Lagos, Dakar, Paris or Dhaka, from documented trends.
• Working less for the climate?: The four-day week, trialled in Iceland, the United Kingdom and Japan, touches working time, consumption and travel.
• Having children on a warming planet: Eco-anxiety and decisions about parenthood: what young people say, what demographers observe, how cultures and religions respond.
• Do future generations have rights?: A Future Generations Commissioner in Wales, climate cases won by young people in Germany and the United States: the law is looking for ways to represent those yet to be born.
• A green Sahel: The Great Green Wall, agroforestry, water management: what it takes for a re-greened Sahel to become a real trajectory.
• The city after the private car: From Pontevedra to Bogotá, from Copenhagen to Seoul: cities are giving their streets back to pedestrians, bicycles and public transport.
• A climate dividend: Taxing carbon and paying the proceeds back to every resident, as Canada did from 2019 to 2025: financing the transition while protecting low-income households.
• The rights of nature in court: From the Whanganui River in New Zealand to the Atrato River in Colombia, by way of Ecuador’s constitution: ecosystems are becoming legal persons.
• Counting what counts: Well-being, natural capital, free time: building the indicators that would guide public decisions in place of GDP alone, as Bhutan and New Zealand have tried to do.
• Feeding and regenerating: Agroecology, alternative proteins, less food waste: a food system that feeds everyone and restores the soil.
• A status for climate-displaced people: The treaty between Tuvalu and Australia opens a new path. Creating international protection for those the climate drives from their homes remains a legal work in progress.
• Water, tomorrow’s commons: Sharing transboundary basins from the Nile to the Mekong, water pricing, local governance: writing the scenario of water managed as a commons.
• Desirable sufficiency: Making sufficiency a project of freedom and reclaimed time: narratives, public policies, cultures.

You can also propose another topic linked to the lab. Anchor it in a country, a city, a sector or a period: a good topic fits in one precise sentence.

PROFILES WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Climate, environmental or earth sciences, agronomy: a green Sahel, feeding and regenerating, water as a commons
• Geopolitics or international relations: the powers, resources and alliances of 2050
• Economics: post-growth models, a climate dividend, indicators beyond GDP, working less for the climate
• Law: the rights of nature, the rights of future generations, a status for climate-displaced people
• Urban planning, transport, demography or sociology: the city after the private car, having children on a warming planet
• Writers who tell stories about the future (speculative fiction, narrative journalism) and ground them in documented trends

Every background counts: a course, a student project, an internship, volunteering or a personal project. First-hand experience of the topic you write about is a strength.

WHAT YOU DO DURING THE CYCLE

• Confirm your two topics with the lab at the start of the cycle, within the needs set by the Lab Lead
• Research and write each analysis yourself, with a verifiable source for every figure, quotation and fact
• Submit each analysis through our submission space: the text, its sources, a two- or three-sentence biography, a portrait photo and a declaration of any AI tool used
• Revise your text with the editorial board’s written feedback until its final decision

OUR EDITORIAL CHARTER

• Your own words: a text produced or rewritten by generative AI is rejected, and any use of an AI tool is declared, proofreading included
• Verifiable sources: author, title, date and link for each one
• Three checks before the editorial board: AI detection, plagiarism check and source check
• Unpublished work, reserved for YouthShare until it is published

Read the charter: editorial charter

WHAT THIS ASSIGNMENT GIVES YOU

• Two analyses published under your name, in English and French
• Written feedback from the editorial board at every round
• Your card on our

Contributors page

• Research writing experience to the standard of a demanding editorial board

HOW CYCLES WORK

Each lab welcomes 5 contributors per 3-month cycle. The assignment can be renewed once, for a second cycle. After each cycle, the lab opens a new cohort according to the needs set by its Lab Lead.

HOW SELECTION WORKS

We select applications according to our values (equity, solidarity, integrity, participation, resilience and impact), your availability and the places open in the cycle.

If you need an adjustment to apply or to take part, write to hr@youthshareinitiatives.org

AFTER SELECTION: SUBMIT ON OUR WEBSITE

Each analysis is submitted with a personal code received by email: submission space

ABOUT YOUTHSHARE INITIATIVES

YouthShare Initiatives is an international think-action tank and a French non-profit (Act of 1 July 1901). It brings young people from around the world together in five labs to think together, then act: research, debate, mentoring and foresight. Discover us: youthshareinitiatives.org

RÉSUMÉ EN FRANÇAIS

Rédiger deux analyses prospectives sur le monde de 2050 (Les Futurs Impossibles) : Vous rédigez deux analyses qui imaginent le monde de 2050 et l’ancrent dans les données : climat, géopolitique, démocratie, crises et vie quotidienne.

Mission bénévole à distance, 5 places, cycle de 3 mois du 1er décembre 2026 au 28 février 2027, renouvelable une fois ; 3 à 5 h par semaine. Candidatez ici sur Idealist : présentez votre sujet, votre angle et ce qui le rend original.

Vos analyses se déposent ensuite sur notre site : soumettre une analyse

Pistes de recherche du laboratoire : lire les pistes