Abstract:  In an era marked by overlapping crises, including climate change, democratic erosion, digital disruption, and socioeconomic inequality, municipalities increasingly serve as frontline actors in shaping adaptive and inclusive urban futures. This article examines how Futures Bazaar, a participatory futuring method, can develop future literacy and resilience within municipal governance. Drawing on survey data from a multi‐case study involving 13 Swedish municipalities, based primarily on responses from organisers coordinating the events across municipalities, and complemented by an in‐depth survey of participants from one workshop, this study analyses how Futures Bazaar workshops engage civil servants, policymakers, and citizens in co‐creating tangible future scenarios to address locally defined societal challenges. Framed within theories of participatory design, co‐creation, and strategic foresight, the article explores how futures are imagined and negotiated in municipal contexts, and how this reshapes the agency of local actors in future‐making. The findings show that Futures Bazaar functions as a temporary yet transformative space for challenging institutional path dependencies and stimulating systemic thinking. Through playfulness, prototyping, and dialogue, the method helped unlock participants’ imagination, enabling them to move beyond existing constraints. However, the study also identifies critical frictions, such as organisational inertia, limited policy integration, and the exclusion of marginalised voices that constrain the method’s long‐term impact. By investigating how municipalities can navigate challenges through design‐led speculative engagement, this study contributes to a broader understanding of urban planning as both a technical, imaginative, and democratic practice. It argues that participatory futuring tools like the Futures Bazaar can help realign urban governance toward more anticipatory, inclusive, and situated future‐making practices, provided they are supported by institutional commitment and structural anchoring.

Keywords:  co‐creation; design methods; futuring; municipal governance; participatory design; speculative design; strategic foresight

Published:   13 May 2026

Issue:   Vol 11 (2026): Urban Futures in Times of Disruption (In Progress)