This Z-Lab is for students who want to understand how people, communities and institutions reorganise under future extreme conditions, and how these conditions can reveal where strategic action is needed to transform collective life. The Z-Lab Societal Transition explores how societies prepare for disruption before disruption becomes crisis. It does not start from a predefined case or solution, but from a strategic question: what happens to people, communities and institutions when ordinary arrangements no longer provide enough protection, coordination or capacity to act? The course uses future extreme conditions as a way to examine the resilience and adaptability of collective life. Climate stress, resource scarcity, technological disruption, institutional fragility, demographic pressure, isolation, social fragmentation or new forms of dependency are not treated as dystopian scenarios. They are used as pressure tests: conditions that reveal what a society is ready for, where it is exposed, and which forms of preparedness, cooperation and governance may become necessary. Students will analyse how preparedness is organised today: who is expected to respond, who is actually enabled to act, which communities are left vulnerable, which infrastructures support collective action, and where trust, coordination or institutional capacity may break down. The aim is to understand preparedness not only as emergency response, but as a societal capability that must be built across communities, institutions, services, infrastructures and everyday practices. Futures and foresight will help students explore how different pressures may evolve and combine. Through worldbuilding, social and economic sci-fi and speculative design, they will construct plausible future situations in which existing arrangements are no longer sufficient. These future worlds will become testing environments for new forms of collective organisation. Within these worlds, students will design prototypical and diegetic devices that support societal preparedness and reorganisation: governance protocols, mutual aid systems, civic infrastructures, service models, decision-making tools, resource-sharing mechanisms or new institutional forms. These devices will help clarify how communities could respond, what capacities would need to be developed, which actors should be involved, and what conditions must be created in the present. By the end of the course, each student will develop a recognisable individual project, even when connected to the work of others. The final output will make a possible form of societal preparedness tangible and will help students return to the present with a clearer view of where action, alliances and institutional innovation are needed today. The Z-Lab supports students in moving from the analysis of vulnerability and preparedness gaps to the design of strategic responses. They will identify signals of change, pressure points, enabling conditions and transformative opportunities, and will develop prototypical/diegetic devices — such as governance protocols, mutual aid systems, civic infrastructures, service models, decision-making tools, resource-sharing mechanisms or new institutional forms — capable of strengthening collective capacity and supporting social reorganisation.

By the end of this Z-Lab, students will be able to: Understand preparedness as a societal capability, recognising how people, communities, institutions and other actors can anticipate disruption, organise responses and act before stress turns into crisis. Analyse social systems under pressure, identifying where current arrangements are fragile, which communities or actors are exposed, and where capacities for response, coordination, care or protection are missing. Map the conditions that enable or prevent collective action, including infrastructures, governance arrangements, trust mechanisms, resources, roles, responsibilities, alliances and institutional capacities. Use futures and foresight to explore future extreme conditions, assessing how climate stress, technological disruption, resource scarcity, demographic pressure, institutional fragility or social fragmentation may affect collective life. Identify strategic opportunities for societal preparedness, recognising where intervention could strengthen communities, improve coordination, redistribute capacity or support new forms of cooperation. Construct plausible future situations through worldbuilding and social/economic sci-fi, using them as testing environments to explore how societies may reorganise under changing conditions. Design prototypical and diegetic devices — such as governance protocols, mutual aid systems, civic infrastructures, service models, decision-making tools, resource-sharing mechanisms or new institutional forms — capable of supporting collective reorganisation. Evaluate the strategic implications of these devices, clarifying which actors should be involved, which capacities need to be developed, which enabling conditions are required, and what risks or trade-offs may emerge. Return from future extreme conditions to the present, identifying what these explorations reveal about today’s preparedness gaps and where action, alliances or institutional innovation may be needed.

The main objective of the Z-Lab Societal Transition is to train students to understand preparedness as a societal capability: the ability of people, communities, institutions and other actors to anticipate disruption, organise collective responses and act before stress turns into crisis. Using future extreme conditions as a field of inquiry, the course explores what happens when ordinary social, economic and governance arrangements become insufficient. Students will learn to analyse where societies are exposed, which capacities are missing, who is enabled or prevented from acting, and what forms of cooperation, care, coordination and governance may be needed under changing conditions. The Z-Lab supports students in moving from the analysis of vulnerability and preparedness gaps to the design of strategic responses. They will identify signals of change, pressure points, enabling conditions and transformative opportunities, and will develop prototypical/diegetic devices — such as governance protocols, mutual aid systems, civic infrastructures, service models, decision-making tools, resource-sharing mechanisms or new institutional forms — capable of strengthening collective capacity and supporting social reorganisation.

Materials will be provided during the course. They may include academic articles, essays, case studies, policy documents, foresight toolkits and references on societal and socio-technical transitions, democratic governance, commons, public digital infrastructures, welfare futures, design fiction and economic speculative design.

The Z-Lab combines short lectures, guided discussions, collective reflection, small-group work and individual project development. Each session introduces a specific step of the process and translates it into an applied laboratory activity. Students will work in small groups to analyse preparedness gaps, discuss signals of disruption, explore future implications, build future situations and test emerging ideas. Collaborative work is central to the course: it helps students compare perspectives, understand how different actors may respond under stress, and build shared intelligence around societal preparedness and collective reorganisation. The activities will be supported by designed tools, structured canvases and collaborative boards, delivered through digital environments such as Miro or Mural. These tools will support system reading, horizon scanning, scenario implications, Three Horizons, worldbuilding and the design of prototypical/diegetic devices. They are not only facilitation supports, but learning infrastructures that help students make complex social dynamics visible and progressively develop their reasoning. Although several activities will be collective, each student will develop an individual final project. The aim is to ensure that every participant identifies a personal strategic opportunity and translates it into a recognisable device connected to the broader work of the group.

Attending Students (attendance ≥ 70% recorded via BEACON) Continuous Assessment – 1/3 of the final grade: group presentations held during the semester. Final Exam – 2/3 of the final grade: Individual oral exam in the exam sessions scheduled at the end of the semester. In subsequent exam sessions (retakes), the grade is based exclusively on the individual oral exam (100%). Non-Attending Students Final Exam – 100% of the final grade: Individual oral exam starting from the exam sessions scheduled at the end of the semester. ASSESSMENT CRITERIA Group presentations are evaluated on the basis of: clarity of delivery, command of the subject matter, quality of analysis, and ability to respond to questions. The oral exam assesses critical understanding of the topics covered in the course.

No specific formal criteria will be used. The instructors will guide students in connecting these interests with their academic path and with possible future directions in their professional, entrepreneurial, civic or social-impact work