Possibility Studies: A Manifesto

Experiences of the possible foster mental health . While mental health and well-being have a wide range of determinants, the capacity to envision a multitude of possible solutions to life’s problems, and the confidence that some of these can be achieved, is a precondition for both.

the struggle against the rejection of possibility is also a political act, one that can lead to resistance, resilience, and the generation of new societal alternatives.

The construction of norms, values, and ideologies around who, in society, is expected or has the right to discover new possibilities and, conversely, who is denied such opportunities is a political act. In fact, power relations within and between groups are a key determinant in the dynamic of the possible and the imposition of impossibility.

Pedagogies of the possible are an educational necessity . Traditional forms of education, focused on standardised goals, uniformity in teaching, and sameness of outcomes, are increasingly recognised as not suitable for the challenges (and impossibilities) of today. Living within uncertain, complex and difficult environments, defined by a fast pace

While many of the foregoing assertions seem to suggest that human explorations of the possible lead to a variety of positive outcomes, from personal to societal, we cannot underestimate the darker sides of this engagement. For example, the discourse of possibility can become a burden when normatively imposed

It is not accidental, in this context, that the inability to reimagine one’s life is a primary indicator of traumatic experiences, and its reversal represents a key sign of recovering and, in some cases, of entering a new phase of post-traumatic growth.

we need a sustained ethical reflection on the scope, nature, and limits of our engagement with the possible and the consequences this engagement has for ourselves, for others, for society, and for the planet. Being in the position to envision a course of action and its alternatives and to evaluate which possibilities should be acted upon and which

our engagement with possibility is, at all times, constrained (e.g., by what is, by previous imaginations of what could be, by their enactment). This doesn’t mean that we cannot envision radical possibilities but that constraints – themselves never fully fixed in time and space – are enablers of our relationship with what is possible, both in its m

They also follow a narrative structure in which choices and opportunities are rendered intelligible by placing them within wider stories of who we are and who we are becoming.