possibility studies
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
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
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.
Vlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
Every viewpoint is useful and it takes a wide diversity of views for any group to navigate this universe, let alone to act as custodians for it.
Tyson Yunkaporta • Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform. —Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed1
Kelly Hayes • Let This Radicalize You
discourses about human possibility should not be Eurocentric or Western centric but actively invite experiences and ideas that grow out of decolonisation as a position from which we can actively reimagine self, other, and world.
Vlad P. Glăveanu • Possibility Studies: A Manifesto
Children in our studies who believe in possibility rarely cite libertarian ideas of “free will” (I am the ultimate authority over my actions and decisions). Instead, they sound like they are imagining hypothetical (and novel) solutions to social and psychological problems. This increasing willingness to transcend psychological, social, and moral
... See moreTamar Kushnir • How Children Learn to Transcend Limits: Developmental Pathways to Possibility Beliefs
Like any currency of value, the human imagination is a coin with two inseparable sides. It is our faculty of fancy that fills the disquieting gaps of the unknown with the tranquilizing certitudes of myth and superstition, that points to magic and witchcraft when common sense and reason fail to unveil causality. But that selfsame faculty is also... See more
Maria Popova • Figuring
Indeed, imagination is alive and well in relation to technology: a future is being built where manufactured goods will mainly be grown rather than made, where wars may be settled in a matter of seconds thanks to AI, or where long-standing hopes for the colonisation of space may start to be realised. Technology has repeatedly expanded the space of
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