future mapping

imagination, rather than being seen as an ‘essential skill’, is commonly perceived as messy, unpredictable, a bit cheeky, potentially uncontrollable and a frivolous and unprofitable use of time.

As Donella Meadows, co-author of the Limits to Growth studies, asks, ‘How did we arrive at a culture that constantly, almost automatically, ridicules visionaries? Whose idea of reality forces us to “be realistic”? When were we taught, and by whom, to suppress our visions?’

We need to deepen our storytelling of one specific kind of story, however – namely, the kind of story that can allow us to imagine a future replete with possibility.