possibility studies
What I love about the idea of scenius is that it makes room in the story of creativity for the rest of us: the people who don’t consider ourselves geniuses. Being a valuable part of a scenius is not necessarily about how smart or talented you are, but about what you have to contribute—the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make,... See more
Further Notes on Scenius
By foregrounding hope, imagination, agency and creativity, we can get to fully appreciate what it means to be human in a world that oftentimes resists our needs, expectations, and aspirations.
Vlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
To truly find new narratives (and therefore new ways of being, doing, thinking) it is not a question of simply imagining these narratives per se, since that is almost an impossible task on its own. Instead we need to understand what is keeping us from taking a look at the impossible in the first place. What are the blind spots or voices of reason
... See moreLoes Damhof • Imagining the Impossible: An Act of Radical Hope
If you are asked to imagine a future city, you are bound to think of its transport, its buildings or its public spaces, not the invisible patterns that may explain much more about its character. The discipline of imagining physical things can be extremely creative, and today’s architects are at the forefront of thinking through how to live entwined
... See moreGeoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
People are not roles. "Finding a way" is about the unique possibilities that occur in relationship between particular people, in that particular water, on that particular day. There is no formula, no method; this realm of possibility is accessed through a sentiment of human care and imagination.
Nora Bateson, Combining
the world’s most visible public intellectuals today more often revive or reassert old ideas, rather than generating new ones. The result is that old zombie orthodoxies survive far longer than they should.
Geoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
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.
Vlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
It’s better to prefer incompleteness over completeness; capacious imagination instead of futures that are too specific or neat; and experimentation and exploration over visions and blueprints. I’m sceptical of overly coherent utopias or the belief that societies follow simple logics. Instead, I see the work of imagination (and the life of real
... See moreGeoff Mulgan • Another World Is Possible: How to Reignite Social and Political Imagination
The book focuses on a simple question: how could we become better at imagining the society in which we might like to live a generation or two from now?